Team Future: Magneta
by artificus
Summary: A confession makes Vi's world turning upside down. Her best friend Liz is in love with Wilbur? What is she supposed to do now? And as if this wouldn't be enough, there's a new villian in town, causing a lot of trouble...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey freinds! A new adventure is approaching! And an new enemy. This is the re-written version of the fanfic, that was lost to a harddrive-crash last winter. To be honest, this version is much better ;-) I would be grateful for reveiws, since I'm not very sure about how the ending turned out. And now enjoy the story!**

* * *

"Vi, really, you have my deepest respect! This is by far, by very far, the absolutely ultimative most boring and lame stuff, that I ever had to do!" Wilbur complained, "Even more boring than school! And school is already unspeakably boring!"

Vi groaned in annoyance. She had imagined this evening differently, than listening to Wilbur's endless complaints all the time.

"When school is located right here on the boredom-scale" he continued, holding his hand over his head, "then this crap is just above the roof of this house!"

There was a pause. Violet didn't even think about to say something. The least thing she would do was to start a fight with him. Yet, this was by far the most terrible Friday evening ever.

"School is useful al least, since you learn something when you pay attention!" Wilbur continued to bleat around, he just didn't get tired of it. Violet only groaned, tortured, "But this is so incredibly unnecessarily! Old-fashioned! Yes, Violet Parr, you are old fashioned, hopelessly outdated! The progress-express was in town and you've missed it! There are robots for things like this! And Lazlo has a color-gun! With this, this stupid work would go much faster! Why do we need to do this anyway?!"

They were painting Violet's room. Violet had invited her buddies Wilbur and Pete to help her, because she thought it would surely be a lot of fun with them. Together, the three of them would have completed the work within one hour. And as a reward, there would be some fine food and a movie. Painting a room: Actually, not a very demanding task, and in fact they could be done long time ago. But on the contrary. After she had to prevent Pete from building a color bomb, that would had certainly blown up her room, he had left offended. And since then Wilbur couldn't stop to spoil her evening by endlessy complaining. Obviously, people from the future were not accustomed to do physical work. Vi always felt a certain pride when she accomplished something with her own hands, but in this time, people didn't seem to appreciate this anymore.  
Wilbur, however, saw the matter quite differently. For him, this venture was an absolute waste of time. What was so great about to get all splotchy with paint and to get sore muscles? They could use the time to make much cooler stuff.

"Then why are you still here?!" Vi asked finally, not even trying to hide her bad mood. She just couldn't understand it. He came from a family, where they were throwing their dinner at each other every day. And now Wilbur bitched around because of some splotches of colour?! That was kinda ironic.

"THIS is an excellent question!" Wilbur exclaimed, annoyed.  
Vi was painting the opposite wall so that she stood with her back to Wilbur, and so she couldn't se what he did behind her. When she finally turned around, she saw that all he had finished painting so far was just the bottom third of the wall. Well, if he wasn't even able to work properly, she had no reason to listen to his whining any longer!

"Enough for today." Vi said dryly, put her paint roller into the bucket and wiped her hands on her dirty work pants...

"Yeah, finally!" Wilbur exclaimed with relief and jumped up as if he had just been waiting for her to say this. "Come on, we pick up Pete, go to Earl's, eat some ice cream and then we go-"

"No ..." she interrupted. Her voice was quiet but determined, "I mean: Enough for you! I have to finish this," she added, letting her eyes wander through the half blue, half orange room. It was eye-cancer-causing! She would certainly not sleep in this mess.

"But why...?" Wilbur asked disappointed after a pause.  
That was too much. Violet was no longer able to remain quiet. Did he seriously expect her, after all his bitchy whining and moaning, that she still wanted to hang out with him today?!

"You're SUCH a pain in my neck today!" she blurted out, "Ever since Pete has left, all I hear is how you complain without a pause, I can't keep it anymore!" she cried, and tore her long blue-black hair. Then she gave him an angry gaze, pushing her lower lip upwards, and put her hands akimbo, "I rather work alone!"

Then she threw her hands in the air and began to walk across the room, annoyed.

"I thought it would be a funny thing with both of you, but I must say, you both really drive me up the wall! First Pete wants to blow up my room- Why does this boy always has so many explosives with him anyway? - and then you don't stop grouching like a baby!" Suddenly she stopped and crossed her arms, her voice was quiet again, yet keenly.

"You, Wilbur Robinson, are a fun-killer!"

In shock, Wilbur gasped for air. A fun-killer? He?! Never before he had been so insulted by somebody! He was so stunned that he wasn't even able to say something. He would have never admitted it, but deep inside his mind he probably knew she was right...

"And you can't even paint properly too! How long did it take you for this small peace, eh?!" she cried irritably, glancing at the clock, "An hour? I thought it would be much, MUCH longer! Thanks to your nagging, I somehow lost my sense of time!" she added cynically.

"Okay, fine!" Wilbur finally cried, offended, yet he tried not to dissemble, however, he failed "Then it's only Pete and me, who pay Earl a visirt, eat ice cream, and enjoy the weather while you can drudge here! Have fun!" he said, gesturing wildly with his hands. Unfortunately, he was still holding the painting roll, so splashes of color flew across the room.

"Wilbur, look out!" Violet cried hastily, gripping his wrists to stop him. Some places, which weren't covered, like her books, some furniture and a small area on her new carpet had been hit.

"Sorry!" Wilbur said sheepishly.

"Okay ..." groaned Vi in a low voice, trying not to get angry again, but when she spoke, she could not prevent her voice from getting loud, "It will remind me forever ... in your incompetence! Now just get you gone!" she added, annoyed and pushed him towards the door of her room.

* * *

Annoyed, Wilbur walked home. He had his hands in his pockets and kicked sullenly against a stone. Pete didn't answere his cell phone, and he hadn't been at home. And going to Earl's Ice cream Shop, on a Friday night, all alone, was pathetic. He still couldn't understand why Vi preferred this lame work of room painting, instead of leaving the job and hanging out with him, doing something more entertaining.

"Fun-killer...!" he muttered angrily and kicked the stone again. She had actually called him a fun killer! But she was the one, who rather spend her Friday evening with painting stupid walls the old-fashioned way, instead of having fun! It was Friday after all. They could get some food, go to the movies, to the trampoline-park, playing charge-ball or everything else possible! She was the fun-killer!

When he arrived at home, he had calmed down a little, but he was still annoyed. He trotted into the kitchen and felt sorry for himself because he would have a boring Friday night, with no Vi to hang out. He would simply try to call Pete again... But the guy surely hung out with Liz ... The two were a couple for nearly a month, and although Pete had sworn to him that a girlfriend would never influence his coolness and fun-factor, he was now rarely around. And when Wilbur had a chance to meet him, all he heard was "Liz here, liz there!" It was so terribly annoying. Pete had been so cool once, and now he was nothing more than a henpecked boyfriend. Anyway, Wilbur had looked forward to meet him again today...  
In the refrigerator, he found nothing that can soothe his frustration. Only the leftovers from dinner, a half cake, cans and cans of energy drink (Cornelius drank far too much of it) and some strange, green goo, that probably belonged to some experiment.  
Wilbur groaned annoyed, went into the living room and let himself fall on the couch all melodramaticly, gracefully throwing an arm over his face. Unfortunately, ther was no one around who could have admired his theatrical performance. He sighed deeply, then he picked up the phone and dialed Pete's number. After the second ring his mother, Edith, answered the phone.

"Oh, hi Wilbur!" she greeted kindly, after he had greeted her, but before he could ask for Pete, she continued: "I'm sorry, but Pete is not available right now..."

Not avaliable..? What was that suppoed to mean? Was he talking a shower or what?

"Okay, I'll wait" he said, since he had nothing better to do.

"Well, I don't think-" Edith began.

"Or I'll call again 5 minutes," he interrupted.

"Uhm ... to be honest, Wilbur, I don't think he wants to talk to anyone ..."

"What happened?" Wilbur asked in surprise. Not even two hours ago, Pete was still in a pretty good mood (even though Vi had prohibited him to build this bomb-thing).

"I'm not sure, but he just returned from a date with Liz..." Pete's mother began reluctantly. Wilbur rolled his eyes and was glad that Edith couldn't see it. Wilbur had known it!  
Traitor, Wilbur thought annoyed. Pete had left him alone with Vi and this terribly boring work to meet up with his girlfriend ... Therefor he would get 15 points deducted from his coolness scale! Wilbur was so delved in his thoughts that he didn't really listened to what Edith said.

"Right now he doesn't feel well. But I'll tell him that you called. "

"Okay, thank you very much." he said, than said goodbye and hung up. Then he ran his hands through his raven black hair, annoyed. Having a girlfriend brought nothing but trouble! He dropped onto his back and stared for a few seconds at the ceiling. Then he rolled frantically around on the couch. What should he do tonight? Then suddenly he had an idea and bravely took up the speakerphone of the house.

"Carl?"

"No, it's me, Tallulah," came his cousin's reply. Wilbur wasn't disappointed, he could still ask Carl later.

"The others have let me down ... what are you doing tonight?" he asked her.

"Oh, I'm going to a vernissage, followed by fashion show! It's going to be fantastic, I'm so excited! 'Fashion is art' is the motto! You wanna join me?" Tallulahs voice echoed through the huge living room.  
Wilbur gulped. There he would rather have pained walls for the rest of the weekend.

"Erm ... no thanks ..." Wilbur refused, and tried not show his reluctance. However, you could tell from the tone of his voice, that he was disappointed.

"I'm sorry, Wilbur" Tallulah said sympathetically.

"What's Lazlo doing?" Wilbur asked hopefully after a pause. Lazlo and Pete were both quite crazy. Both only had nonsense in their mind. Spending the evening with would be Lazlo fun.

Instead of answering, one of the doors to the living room opened and Tallulah entered. She wore a dress, that was designed impressionistically, the motto seemed to be 'Van Gogh', at least Wilbur meant to recognize the painting "La nuit sur le Rhône étoilée". Her hat was made of yellow, round pompoms, which should represent the stars.

"Lazlo is gone, don't ask me where, I'm not his babysitter!" she said bitchy. Then she let herself fall onto the couch beside him and began to polish their fingernails. Wilbur realized that even her nails were painted impressionistically, each a miniature version of a Van Gogh painting.

"And Uncle Art?" Wilbur asked.

"At work, I think he has to deliver something to the delta quadrant ..."

"Gaston?"

"At some competition. He wants to defend his speed record again, and I think he said something about beeing the first man, who breaks the sound barrier unaided."

"Aunt Billie?" Wilbur asked again, and his voice became more and more frustrated.

"On a locomotive exhibition"

"Anyone else?" Wilbur asked, now completely desperate.

"Your mother is on a concert, my parents have their weekly poker night, Granny and Granpa are skydiving in Ecuador, Joe is busy with his training, Carl is gone, at maintenance, as far as I know ... and even Lefty has his free day... the entire house is empty – well, except for you... " she corrected herself.

"Oh man..." Wilbur said with a pitiful groan and seemed to shrink.

"Oh, poor little Wilbur," Tallulah said, and ruffled his pitch-black hair. Wilbur just endured it, and when she was finished, he arranged his hair again, sulky. Tallulah had always been kind of a big sister to him, they had always come along quite well, even though they were so utterly different. She gave him a sympathic smile and looked a little helpless, because she couldn't solve his problem.

"Sure you don't want to join me?" she asked. Wilbur only shook his head frustrated.

"Well then, I got to go," Tallulah then said, and rose from the couch, "The opening starts at eight clock o'clock"

Wilbur threw a glance at the great retro-clock on the wall.

"Um, Tallulah ... it's already half past eight."

"Of course!" she replied, "I just needed a little longer to find the perfect outfit. Most people think clothes would be just something to throw over, without paying attention to aesthetics and a successful overall composition. Who shows up to such an event in time, leaves the impression that he had not sufficiently taken the time to rethink his wardrobe. I mean, just look at you! How long do you need to choose your clothes and to dress?" she said, pointing at him as an illustrative example. Wilbur didn't take it personally. This was Tallulah, after all.

"Fashion is art, and you should never underestimate it's message. So, what do you say?"

"About what?"

"How do I look?"

"A perfect dream!" he said, enthusiastically over the top. For a moment he imagined Vi in this dress, and had to cover his mouth with a hand to avoid laughing out loud. Tallulah didn't notice, or rather, she didn't really care.. For her only the statements of true fashion experts mattered. Everybody else wasn't just smart or sophisticated enough to understand.

As Tallulah had left, Wilbur stretched out on the couch again, staring at the ceiling. Then, after a seemingly interminable time, he turned on the TV and switched through all 255 channels, but he found nothing that caught his attention. He turned the TV off again, sighed and looked at the clock. Only three minutes had passed?! Should the entire night pass that slow?

"Boring!" he exclaimed in frustration, but there was no one, who could have heard him. Then he decided to call Vi. Maybe she was now finished with painting, so that they could do something together.

"Hey, Wil!" she greeted him cheerfully. How could she be so cheerful, when she had to do such a god-aweful work? Well, at least she didn't seem to be angry anymore.

"Hey..." He began unmotivated, "I was just wondering if you feel like hanging out."

"Um ..." she began uncertainly.

"Are you even finished with your room?" he added hastily. If not, he would just call her back later.

"Yeah, long ago" Vi said coolly, then she added after a pause: "Liz helped me out."

Wilbur felt a sting of jealousy in his heart. She threw him out and then hung around with Liz? He was not really jealous, in fact, he was mad at himself. If he only had not complained all the time, he would now do something with Vi. Liz never complained, so she would be willing slave for Vi's stupid renovation-thing. That was so unfair! The two girls sat in Vi's room now and had fun while he was here all by himself, vegetating in boredom! How nice, that they let him know! He could hardly suppress his annoyance.

"Oh, how nice for you!" he said sarcastically.

"Now don't start bitching" he heard Vi's calm voice. She obviously seemed to have anticipated his reaction. Now, to top it all, he became predictable too!?

"I said, if you help me, you would have gotten something to eat and a movie of your choice as a reward, but you did not want to help me. Now don't be offended when I spend the evening with someone else!"

"I'm not offended!" he disagreed and noticed how he failed to control his tone. He sounded like a sulky child.

"No, absolutely not!" Violet replied sarcastically.

"All right. Then I wish you two a very nice evening!" he said, teasing, but Vi remained all relaxed.

"Same for you, Wilbur!" she replied so cheerfully, it was disgusting. He hung up the phone and threw it on the other end of the couch, then buried his face in his hands. The evening was over, hopelessly ruined.

But suddenly he had to smile inevitably, when he heard the shrill laugh of a child. Shortly afterwards he heard quick, clumsy steps towards the living room. Wilma, his younger sister, who was just eighteen months old, toddled, suddenly, like lightning through the living room. Her hair was tied into two little pigtails, with each step bobbing up and down, just like the bright yellow dress she was wearing. She had only recently learned how to walk and already ran around through the house (and the neighbourhood), as if she had never done anything else ... However, it was dangerous to let her run around unattended. That moment he realized that someone still had to be here. Somebody was taking care of Wilma. No one had told him anything about babysitting, so who was left? He wanted to get up to catch the little girl, when suddenly his father ran into the living room frantically, almost hysterically.

"Is she here?!" he cried, quite out of breath. Wilbur pointed to the yellow spot, which was moving through the room with incredible speed (for a toddler). Cornelius cut her off and grabbed Wilma, who then gave a squeaky laugh.

"I can't even let you out of sight for five seconds!" scolded Cornelius, still out of breath.

"I turned around only for a moment to get her bottle, and suddenly I hear her flying through the transport tubes," he said, then turned to Wilma, who he held in his arms, "transport tubes are no toys, young lady!"  
Then he dropped exhausted on the couch in order to catch his breath, Wilma on his lap.

"This house is too big ..." Cornelius said between the breaths, after he had chased Wilma through almost every room of this building.

"Or maybe you're just in a bad shape..." Wilbur replied with a grin, and therefore recieved a pretty grim gaze. Cornelius had never been particularly athletic, finally, he spent most of his time in his laboratory. Yet, it kind of was a weak spot.

"Weren't you hanging out with Vi and Pete?" Cornelius asked to change the subject. Wilbur only gave a frustrated groan. Now he had Cornelius attention.

"Hey ... are you okay?" he asked anxiously.

"Yeaaaah..." Wilbur began tormented, "But noooo... Vi is doing some boring bore-stuff... and I just don't feel like it." He ended quietly.

Cornelius had to admit that he didn't exactly know how to deal with a bored teenager. He had no idea what to say. Too bad that Franny wasn't here. Suddenly Wilma squeaked.

"Wibu!" she squealed and stretched out her little hands towards Wilbur, making big eyes.

"Wima!" Wilbur replied with an equally high squeeking voice and tapped Wilma on her tiny nose. The little girl giggled, and somehow that made him feel better. But then he noticed his father's horrified gaze.

"What?" Wilbur asked, confused.

"She can say your name already?!" Cornelius blurted out, with a mixture of disbelief and despair.

"Sure," Wilbur said, shrugging, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "for a week or so"

"For a week ...?" Cornelius repeated, completely stunned. This information seemed devastating. He made a long, disappointed face. Then suddenly his expression became morose. He picked up Wilma and held her face in front of his.

"Come on, Wilma, say Daddy! Daddy!"

"I don't think that this works. She's too smart for that." Wilbur said, but his father was too obsessed on teaching his daughter to say "daddy", so that he didn't heard him.

"Who am I? Yes, who am I?" he asked again and again, with a high pitched voice. All in all, it looked pretty ridiculous, and Wilma did not seem very enthusiastic about her fathers strange behaviour. Only when Wilbur started to make faced behind Cornelius back, she began to laugh again.

"Wibu!" she squealed.

"No, honey, I'm not Wilbur ..." Cornelius sighed, discouraged, "That's not possible... What am I doing wrong?"

Wilbur just shrugged his shoulders, trying not to grin.

"Well, as long as she only can say and 'Wibu' and 'Mama', I'm still optimistic. Her next word will certainly be 'daddy'!"

"Yesterday, she also said 'Tallulah'..."

"You're kidding!" Cornelius became pale.

"Although it sounded more like 'Tula' ... and I also heard her saying Lefty's name" Wilbur continued.

"Lefy!" Wilma cried and threw up her arms.

"And 'Carl' too" Wilbur added, for the sake of completeness.

"Cal!" Wilma shouted, jumped from Cornelius lap and hopped over the couch before Wilbur finally snapped her and put her on his lap. Cornelius, however, seemed devastated.

"... This is exasperating..." he exclaimed, slapping his hands to his face, "I am the greatest genius in the world, but teaching a toddler to talk, I can't accomplish!"

Wilbur couldn't suppress a smile, he had never seen his father so grim. Sure, sometimes he was confronted with seemingly intractable problems concerning new inventions, like the time machine, but with hard work, there was hardly a problem, that Cornelius could not solve. But this was something else. He could not just press a button or flip a switch. He would just have to wait.  
Cornelius started to relax slowly and smiled, but still seemed to be in a huff.

"You can't accelerate it. She says it when she says it"

"I don't want to wait again until she can say everbody else's names until she learns mine!" Cornelius muttered and gave Wilbur a gloomy look.  
Wilbur suddenly started laughing so hard, that he almost felt sorry for it. He tried to pull himself together, but he couldn't help it. So, that was it? A father's hurt pride? That was the reason, why Wilma should learn to say 'daddy' as quickly as possible? Wilbur had never imagined his father doing something that... well, stupid.

"Are you ready ...?" Cornelius said, as Wilbur had calmed down slowly.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Wilbuur said, still chuckling, with Wilma on his lap. She didn't understand what was going on, yet she just joined the laughter.

"What was my first word?" Wilbur asked then. Cornelius seemed unnerved, his expression darkened.

"Not 'daddy' ..." he said, and seemed to think of dark memories. Wilbur could not help it, he had to laugh again, so hard that tears filled his eyes. Why did his father took this issue so seriously? It didn't matter when a child learned to say 'daddy', as long as it would just learn it someday. The whole situation was just ridiculous!  
Cornelius mood became better, when he noticed how similar his two children looked when they were laughing, even though the age difference was so big. He thought for a while.

"It was 'papnfusha'" he said finally.

"What? What does that stand for?" Wilbur asked, after he had calmed down.

"Yeah, we wondered about that for a long time too... until we found out that -" he could not continue because he had to suddenly start laughing himself when he remembered, how desperately Franny and him had tried to find out what Wilbur meant by this strange word. He had said it continuously, and nobody knew why. They had offered him biscuits, chocolate, candy, toys, anything he wanted but he just didn't stop to cry for it.

"- until we found out, that it should mean 'Captain Future'" Cornelius could barely speak from laughing. Wilbur, on the other hand, didn't find this so funny...


	2. Chapter 2

Vi hung up the reciever, satisfied that Wilbur could now stew in his own juice. She felt a little sorry though, but at the memory of his behavior, she came to the conclusion that he totally deserved that.  
With Liz everything was much simpler. Within twenty minutes they had finished painting the rest of the room. Now they lay on the plastic wrapped bed and were happily chatting. They had a lot of fun. That was just how Vi had imagined this evening.

"He's such a baby!" Vi said after she had hung up.

"I hope he isn't angry now..." Liz said, overly insecure and cautious, her usual way of speaking.

"Oh, nonsense!" Vi contradicted vigurously, "That's totally fine. He can't assume that I jump every time he calls. I am not his monkey, who has time for him always and everywhere. Besides, I told you how he acted up!" she added a little annoyed and pointed to the color patches all over the room.

"This is so typical for Wilbur!" Liz chuckled sheepishly and was actually a little blushing. She put her hands on her hot cheeks. That bugged Vi for some reason. Liz had never spoken a word with Wilbur, so how was she supposed to know what was typical of him?

"Maybe," she said, causally.

"Oh ..." Liz said, her face was as red as a tomato, and on her neck and her décolleté red spots appeared too. She seemed to be nervous about something. The impression was intensified when she gave Vi a meaningful, yet insecure, shy glance. Liz almost looked pitiful. Then she closed her eyes and sighed heavily ...

"What?" Vi asked. Liz sighed again. Something seemed to oppress her very much. That was unusual. Normally, Liz was always very good to keep every sorrow for herself, she hardly let it show. She was not one of the girls who talked constantly about their problems. Vi felt sorry about that, because if her friend had problems, she was only too willing to help her. But Liz had the ultimate self-control. Vi felt that she had problems with her parents, which wasn't too suprising, from all Vi had experienced so far. But Liz never mentioned it. She had once said to Vi "Why should I burden others with my problems? That's nobody's business!"  
And also today, Vi hadn't noticed anything unusual until now. But now Liz almost looked as if someone had died. Vi was restless because Liz didn't respond.

"What happened?" Vi asked anxiously.

"I gotta tell you something ..." Liz said quietly, and she blushed even more. She looked like she was about to cry at any moment. Vi was sure that something terrible had happened!

"What is it?" she urged. Slowly, she became impatient.

"It's about Pete ..." Liz murmured, and looked very sad.

"What? What about him ..." Vi asked with a softer voice. She feared that Liz could change her mind, and keep her problems for herself again, when Vi pushed her too much. Liz swallowed hard, and when she began to speak, her voice was just a hoarse whisper.

"Today, he came over without prior notice and asked if we could do something spontaneously... and then ..." she put one hand over her mouth and took a deep breath, to avoid that she began to cry, "And then I dumped him ..." she squeezed over the knot in her throat, so quiet you could barely hear it.

"You dumped him?" Vi cried in shock. Had she just heard right? Liz just drooped sadly. Then she straightened up, smoothed her top and made a face as if she was only talking about bad weather.

"Yepp ... I probably ruined his weekend ..." she continued drily. This was her sense of humor when she felt bad. She tried to play down the things as if they were not worth mentioning. Vi could not laugh, she was stunned.

"But, but ... why?" she said after a pause.

"Oh ..." Liz groaned heavily, "I felt for about two weeks, that this just doesn't work."

"But you guys are together for only three weeks ..." Vi replied skeptically.

"Thank you for stating the obvious," Liz said, and indeed with a sarcastic tone. Vi had never before heard her speaking sarcastically. Liz stood up and walked around the room with her arms crossed.

"He permanently wants to meet, to hang out, to smooch, makes me gifts, and just I feel uncomfortable with all this. I'm even happy when I can spend a day without him ..."

"Hm, hm ..." Vi said, without really understanding it though.

"And when he payed me a visit today to do something _spontaneously_, I just realized how bad my mood became all of a sudden. I had absolutely no desire to hang out with him and to listen to his silly twaddle again!" Liz said, annoyed.

Vi hardly dared to say anything. She had Liz, the exaggeratedly shy, always polite and courteous Liz, never seen like that! Finally she let her feelings out, instead of locking them up.

"I know he can be quite exhausting sometimes..." Vi tried to appease her.

"That's not even the problem..." Liz started, stopped and looked at an indeterminate point in the air, searching for the right words, "I mean, he's funny, personable and charming ... I like him ... But it is not enough for a relationship ... I don't love him." she ended, with a bit of regret in her voice. She sighed heavily.  
Violet had to think of poor Pete. He was her friend, and she felt sorry for him ... However Liz decision was fully justified under the given circumstances.  
Liz slapped her hands over her red face and fell backwards onto the bed.

"What did I do?" she cried frustrated, "I should have ended this long ago. But he was my first real boyfriend. I knew right from the start that something was wrong, but I thought it would go away over time ..." she continued after a heavy sigh.  
Vi remembered her own first boyfriend, Tony, and with a little regret, she found that she never had the chance to get tired of him.

"But it only became worse ..." Vi added.

"Yes ..." Liz replied meekly. There was a long pause, Liz expression darkened.

"The worst thing is..." she began softly, "I think he really liked me ..."

"I know ..." Vi said, just as quietly, "He constantly talked about you..."

"That makes it even worse!" Liz cried, tortured, "I _wanted_ to be with him, I _wanted_ to hang out with him, I _wanted _to like him. But each time he annoyed me so much, that I was glad when he was gone again. And because of that I felt really bad. He annoyed me. And it bugged me that he was annoying me ... and that was really annoying me, you know? " Liz rattled excited.

"Um, well -" Vi began, but Liz cut her off and just rattled on.

"When I told him that I wanted to finish this thing ... Oh, he was so devastated. I didn't expect that. I thought, he feels just the way I do, that this relation feels wierd and cramped ... somehow ... that it just doesn't feel right... oh ..." she said, with pity, then her mood changed, however, "And then he suddenly started to argue and discuss! Why I want to dump him, what the reason was and that he could change ... and that there were thousands of good reasons why we should be together ..." she continued, a little annoyed, "He just didn't want to accept my decision, and he didn't want to leave, even when I asked him .. . So I had no other choice but to tell him the truth ... he annoys me to death, and he should leave me alone. And even about that he wanted to discuss! He left me no choice - I slammed the door in his face!"  
She paused and played lost in thought with a strand of her blond curls.

"I am a bad person," she ended with a knot in her throat. Vi tried to resist an annoyed groan. Liz was probably the dearest person on this planet, and Vi thought it was pretty exaggerated that she now had to make such serious self-reproaches. Liz would never lie to someone or stab somebody in the back. To dump somebody was a pretty natural thing, and after all, she did it for comprehensible reasons. Calling herself a bad person because of such a trifle was grossly exaggerated.

The two talked for a while. It was getting late, and Liz decided to stay overnight. Together, they made the bed ready and exchanged their dirty work clothes with pyjamas. Then the chatter continued, and in spite of the bad news about her and Pete, it was a really nice girly night. At this time, Vi would have never imagined that the evening would turn out in a catastrophe.

"Well...?" Violet began, "Are there any more outrageous confessions that you want to make...?" she said casually, in an attempt to hide her nosiness. Finally, her best friend had opened, and Vi was really happy about it - okay, she was sorry for Pete, but she was happy that Liz had told her about it. Until today Vi had always had doubts... they should be best friends and Liz never shared her grief and her problems with her? Well, from this evening on this was history.

"Not really ..." Liz said and shrugged. Then she frowned as if she would think about something.

"Well ... although, there is one thing ..." she said, and started grinning inevitably.

"Yeah...?" Violet asked, when Liz did not continue.

"This is so embarrassing, I can't say it!" Liz exclaimed suddenly, excited and blushed.

"Aha! Is it another boy?" Violet asked, who couldn't think of another reason why Liz was blushing. Her guess was confirmed when Liz didn't answer, but just looked down sheepishly.

"Wooooh!" Vi cried excited and jumped around on the bed, "Who is it? Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me! "

"Oh dear..." Liz started, tormented, and took a deep breath, "Well ...", was all she managed to say, however. She seemed to be incredibly nervous. Vi had only seen her like this when Liz had to do a presentation in front of the class. But here they were alone, there was no reason to be so nervous. Vi took her hand reassuringly. Liz closed her eyes and cleared her throat.

"Now please don't think that this would be the reason why I dumped Pete. I already had a crush on this boy, since my first day in Todayland..."

"And you never told me something!" Vi asked, a little disappointed. After all, it had been two years since they had both come to this city.

"Why should I?" Liz said and shrugged, "He would never notice me ... He is out of my reach ..." she continued, a little sad.

"Oh, nonsense!" Vi said, and changed immediately in defense mode. Liz was important to her, she was almost like a sister. Her problems were also Vi's problems.

"Nobody in the world can be so cool that you were not good enough! You're smart, funny, athletic, attractive - "

"And rich," Liz added.

"And rich, exactly. You have to be confident! There is no man in the world who would ignore you! You are everyone's dream girl! And if this guy still dares to reject you, he has to deal with me!" Vi said, clenching her fists. Her expression was almost a little grimly.

"That's nice of you to say that," said Liz, honestly touched.

"I'm not just saying it, I'll do it! So, who is it?" Vi cried, as if she couldn't wait for giving this guy a rubdown. There was silence for a while, while Liz tried bringing herself to speak.

"It's - oh, Vi, I can't say it..!" Liz exclaimed frustrated, "It will never happen anyway, so why should we even talk about it ...?"

"Who, who, who, who, who!?" Vi cried, now almost bursting with curiosity.

"Okay, so you want to know my biggest secret ..." Liz said and took another deep breath. Then she looked at Vi with shining eyes, the shine of amorousness.

"It's ... Wilbur!" she squealed, then pressed a pillow to her face, "Oh my God, I said it! I said it!" she cried hysterically into the pillow and rolled around on the bed, striking wildly with their feet. Vi looked confused.

"Robinson ...?" Vi asked. It was more a horrified statement than a question. Liz took the pillow from her face, and leaned on her elbows. She gave Vi a perky look.

"Sure, you silly, or do we know another Wilbur?"

Vi was so horrified that she was incapable of any reaction. But fortunately Liz didn't notic that. She let herself fall back on the bed and began to rave about Wilbur.

"He's so handsome, eloquent and witty and sooooo cute...!" she shouted in love; she had really got it bad. Then she straightened up, with a big grin on her face, however, her head was still red.

"It's just perfect! I'm rich, he's rich, I'm pretty, he's pretty! We have so much in common!" she cried. Vi wanted to laugh, but for some reason she couldn't. She had no idea why this confession bothered her so much. Maybe that wasn't even the problem, maybe she was just getting sick. She suddenly had sweaty hands, she felt queasy - this violent physical reaction confused her. It could hardly be due to what Liz had said ... or could it? She tried not to dissemble. Nevertheless, she suddenly felt the need to hide, like a wounded animal.

"That was a joke ..." Liz said dryly after Violet didn't respond.

"Yeah ..." said Vi and forced herself to give her friend a half-hearted smile. She couldn't think straight, it felt like her thoughts were stuck in a sticky, viscous substance, so that they could hardly move. Thinking was exhausting and somehow her head was completely empty. Frantically she tried to put together the puzzle pieces.

"Is that the reason why you are so silent when he's around?" she asked finally, and was glad that her brain still worked. She hoped that Liz had not noticed by her sudden change of mood.

"Yes..." Liz admitted sheepishly, "I just can't open my mouth when he's there! He's so cute!" she gushed, and put a hand on her heart. Vi knew this 'crap-I-forgot-how-to-speak!'-reaction very well from her own experience with Tony.

"Can't you put in a good word for me?" Liz asked hopefully after a pause.

"No!" Vi replied, maybe a little too quick, "I - I'm just saying, you should have the courage to talk to him yourself. You can't let it do by someone else. You have a crush on him, I don't - "  
And at that moment she realized what was happening. She was jealous!

"You're right ..." Liz began thoughtfully, "I just have to be more confident ..."  
Violet felt terrible, but tried to continue to be a good friend.

"You don't need to hide! You look good, better than good, since your braces are out, and besides, you have mouth to speak - " she said.

"And to kiss!" Liz giggled carefree, like only an amorous teenage girl could laugh.

"Yeah... right... " Vi said, only capable to give a dry, artificial laugh. A dull, numb feeling was spreading through her body. She shivered. The rest of the evening it was like she was in a trance. In shock, she listened how Liz raved about Wilbur. It seemed like hours were passing. Even Vi, who spent the better part of her time with him, didn't know that you could say so many good things about him. With great difficulty she managed to hide her miserable mood, but Liz was with her thoughts elsewhere anyway.  
Finally they went to sleep ... or at least they turned off the light. Liz fell asleep pretty soon, however Violet stared into the darkness, troubled.

The evening was a disaster, Liz's voice was still ringing in Vi's ears. She thought about the whole situation for a long time.  
Why did she never notice that Liz had a crush on Wilbur? Liz was good with hiding her feelings, but the longer Violet lay there, staring at the ceiling, the more tiny little things she remembered, evidences, which clearly revealed that Liz had a thing for him ... ever since. Vi had just never noticed it ... or maybe she didn't want to notice.  
It was as if fire and ice collided inside her. She wanted to stand by her friend, but there was this cold feeling, this naked horror, fear.  
Suddenly her best friend had become a rival. And Vi was aware of the fact that she would have no chance against Liz.

On the other hand Violet had never been aware of how much she actually liked Wilbur. Only now, since just now, she thought about the idea that they could be more than just friends. Was it true at all then, or was it just a phase? A crazy idea? Was it merely this annoying mechanism that forced her to like everything that Liz was liking? Like this one time, when it was about a stupid handbag. A few months ago, those ugly bags in squeaky neon colors with thick plush pom poms and flowers attatched on long lines were all the rage. Vi thought these things were absolutely shabby, and had never imagined that she would ever buy one. But then Liz had bought one of these ugly bags and promptly Vi had to have one too. Since then Vi had worn that bag only once, then never again, after all she thought it was ugly. It was the same with clothes or music ... Everything Liz had, Vi wanted too. Was it the same now with Wilbur? Did she want him just because Liz wanted him? And in case that she and Wilbur became a couple - what she considered highly unlikely - would she get tired of him just like the bag?  
A frightening concern followed this thought. If she let it happen, and Liz and Wilbur fell in love, she would be the odd one out. Wilbur and Liz would only do stuff together, and so she would lose her two best friends. And if she would interfere and prevent them from coming together, or even took Wilbur for herself, it would hurt Liz, so she would lose her. And if it didn't work out with her and Wilbur, well, then she would lose him too... no matter how she looked at it, at the end she was alone ... she couldn't find a solution that everyone could be happy with. Wasn't a good friend obliged to pass on her own happiness so that their friends could be happy?

Finally she fell asleep completely exhausted, just before dawn.


	3. Chapter 3

The next evening, Violet waited impatiently between a crowd of people in front of the Eden Palace, the movie theatre. The sun had not quite set yet, so the sky shone in variations of warm red and gold tones. In sharp contrast to the sky the almost sterile, colorless lights of skyscrapers illuminated the streets.

It was quite chilly already at this time of the year, and Violet shivered while she waited. She had an appointment with Wilbur ... and with Liz. But so far none of them was had shown up.  
This morning, after their sleepover, Liz had begged Violet to call Wilbur after breakfast. Violet hadn't slept very well, she was exhausted and therefore had no power to say something against it. She couldn't manage to make up a reliable excuse, so she had called and had asked him wether he wanted to come to the cinema – in return for the previous evening. She didn't mentioned Liz with a single word. She had fervently hoped that he would refuse, but he had agreed. Liz had been sitting next to her with a bright red face and had almost died from excitement.  
Vi yawned, exhausted. She didn't know why she had done that. But Liz had begged her so heart-rendingly that she had finally called Wilbur. In retrospect,Vi regreted that. It wasn' her problem after all! What had she to do with all this? If Liz hadn't told her that she was in love with Wilbur, the world would still be all normal and perfect. But no...  
Vi felt queasy the whole day already. All day she was worried sick because of this delicate situation, so that she hadn't been able to eat something. Well, now the result was that she felt sick and totally exhausted. She fervently hoped, no, prayed that everything was over quickly. Hopefully Liz would lose her courage to talk to Wilbur.

Violet shifted her weight uneasily from one foot to another; her thoughts raced, but without leading somewhere. An inner restlessness fulfilled her. And the others weren't even here yet! What was she supposed to do when the two showed up? What should she do, what should she say?  
And as if this aweful nervousness wouldn't be enough, she also suffered from this stressing emotional roller coaster. What was so bad about it when her two best friends became a couple? Would that really be so terrible? Maybe it would turn out as a really cool thing in the end. Why not?  
On the other hand, she was skeptical about the idea that the two could become a couple. Violet tried to convince herself that it was because then Liz and Wil would only hang out together and had no longer time for her. But it wasn't just the feeling of beeing the odd one out, but the bare idea Wilbur could have a girlfriend – and Liz of all people! This was causing her sheer dread.  
Vi took a deep breath, trying to calm down. But it didn't work, on the contrary, her nervousness only increased. She restlessly began to play with a strand of her hair and looked around impatiently for Liz and Wilbur. Then she had a horrible thought: What if Liz and Wil immedieately fell for each other? If they just looked at each other and instantly fell in love undyinglyl? Then Vi would have absolutely no chance to do something about it! Her heart made a painful jump at this thought.  
Did she have the right to prevent that? Of course not ... if both wanted each other to be happy, who was she, that she intervened? The thought that Wil and Liz were a happy couple, made her so sad that she got a lump in her throat. Well, maybe she would just have to get used to the idea.

What an evening... She had quarreled with her best friend and her other best friend had suddenly became her competitor.  
She closed her eyes, turned away from the crowd to a wall and put her hands on her pulsative, aching temples. She was tired, she felt queasy and had a headache, after all, she had barely slept and spent all Saturday laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling and worrying.

When she turned around, she suddenly discovered Wilbur in the crowd, and she tried her best not to dissemble her miserable mood and her nervousness. She smiled (or at least tried to) and waved over to him. Still, he seemed to sense that something was wrong when he came towards her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Wilbur asked anxiously. Violet didn't know how she should respond, but before she even had a chance to say something Wilbur spoke.

"Don't tell me you're still mad at me!" he asked dumbfounded and a little annoyed.

"I'm no longer angry..." Violet said weakly and rubbed her tired eyes.

"Okay," Wilbur said contentedly, "And what is it then?"

"Well, uhm ..." Violet began uncertainly. What should she say? _'Liz has a crush on you and somehow I have something against it'_... And then he would ask, _'Why?' _and then she would have to tell him, that... that she liked him more than ... she couldn't even finish this thought without blushing. She avoided his gaze and looked desperately for an half-way convinsing excuse.

"Uh ..."

"Yes ...?" Wilbur asked impatiently. Violet took a hissing breath, then she blurted out.

"Liz dumped Pete!" she squeezed, her eyes shut. It was the first thing that occurred to her.

"What?!" Wilbur exclaimed, horrified and so loud that some people turned around to them. Violet breathed a sigh of relief. He was now convinced that this was the reason for her strange behavior. So, the rest of the evening she was safe from questions like _"What's wrong with you?"_

"Why?" Wilbur added a little quieter, but still upset.

"Oh, no idea ..." Vi said, but then remembered that she actually knew it quite well, after all, Liz had told her everything yesterday, "She just doesn't love him... And besides that..." Vi bit her tongue. She was just about to portray Liz in a rather bad light. But if she did, it would decrease the chances that Wilbur would develop some interest in Liz!

"She's in love with another boy ..." Vi added sheepishly. And immediately she felt how the bad conscience tormented her. What kind of friend was she? Violet wasn't even sure if she had serious feelings for Wilbur, yet she tried to prevent that Liz had a chance with him...

"I can't believe it! She leaves Pete for somebody else?! That's so – that's so lousy! She always seemed so sweet and shy -?! I never thought she was able to do something like that!" Wilbur went back and forth in front of the cinema, gesturing wildly with his hands.

"It all makes sense now! That's why he didn't feel well yesterday, and why he didn't want to talk to me on the phone. I bet the poor guy is devastated -.." He paused and looked at Violet out of the corner of his eye, then he suddenly jerked around, grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her.

"You knew it, and you rather want to go to the movies with me, instead of supporting our friend through this painful time? We could have asked him if he wants to join us at least!" he cried dramatically.

"There i-i-is s-s-something e-e-else" Violet stammered because he still shook her all melodramaticly, "Liz c-c-comes too at any m-m-moment."

Suddenly Wilbur stopped shaking her and looked at her angrily.

"Not seriously... We go to the movies with Liz, while Pete sits in his basement and cries his eyes out because of her?!"

"Yepp, Pete totally wants us to be with him right now, holding his hand and watching him cry!" Vi replied sarcastically, "He's a boy, he needs to overcome this on his own."

"Vi, since when are you so sexist?" Wilbur said and tore his black hair, "And we could still show some solidarity! Why do we have to hang out with his ex-girlfriend just one day after she dumped him?!" he complained, "When Liz doesn't want to have anything to do with Pete, then I don't want to have something to do with her - I'm leaving!" he ended determined, turned around and was about to stomp away.

Quick as a flash, even before Violet knew what she was doing, she reached out and grabbed his arm. She wanted to stop him, though she didn't exactly know why. Finally it would totally suit her when he was mad at Liz, so they would never get a chance to become a couple. But she had a guilty conscience, which left her no choice.

"Now don't exaggerate!" She said sternly, then her voice was pleading, "Please, Wilbur, she has a difficult time at the moment..."

"Whose side are you on?" Wilbur asked, disappointed.

"Oh come on! This is not a fight or something! That's why you shouldn't get all so exaggeratedly upset. Give her a chance to explain, please!"

Before they had found a solution, Liz came towards them through the crowd suddenly. Vi didn't even notice it at first, only from Wilbur's scowl she saw that someone was approaching from the side.  
Exceptionally, Liz wore her wild, curly blonde hair lose, and she was wearing a white coat, which reached down to her knees.  
Vi greeted her breathlessly, maybe a little overly friendly. Wilbur, however, looked all grimly, and said nothing.

"Oh, let me guess ..." Liz began cynically, "You've already heard the news ..." Liz asked Wilbur. It was less a question than a statement. Vi bit her lip. Liz wasn't even here for five seconds and she already acted as confident, as she never did before when Wilbur had been around! All you could except usually was a shy "Hi" – if she said anything at all.

"Yeah, totally great news," Wilbur said gloomily, crossing his arms.  
Vi slapped her face. She couldn't believe how offended he was. After all, Liz had dumped Pete and not him! And orther people's relationships were so none of your business!  
Then she stopped short suddenly... the same should count for her, right?

"Okay, the movie begins in ten minutes," Liz said with a sober look at her watch, "Perhaps I can clarify a few things until then."

Wilbur wanted to leave. That was treason! What should Pete think when he found out that Vi and him were hanging out with Liz just one day after she had broken his heart? He was still standing there with crossed arms and didn't move until Vi gave him an imperceptible nudge with her elbow. Actually he wanted to protest, but then he thought about how the situation must be for Violet. He had nothing to do with Liz and he didn't really care about her, but Vi was good friends with her, she couldn't just decide for one side - she was caught between two stools. Wilbur took a deep breath and then accompanied the girls into the cinema, only to do Violet a favor. He made a mental note to be as nice as possible to Liz, to make the situation easier for Violet. Still, he felt somewhat guilty because of Pete.

As they were entering the cinema, Liz pushed Violet aside with a smile to walk beside Wilbur. Violet found that incredibly childish and gritted her teeth annoyed. Then she moved to the other side so that Wilbur went in the middle between the two girls.  
When they arrived at their seats, Wilbur sat in the middle - he had no idea how it happened, and he felt a little uncomfortable to sit right next to Liz and talk to her. After all, he had no idea how to get her to speak, because she never said anything.  
But today Liz was quite talkative, she spoke without fear, and explained the situation with Pete. And Wilbur had to admit that Vi was right. Liz's reasons were quite plausible and reasonable, but that didn't make it less painful for Pete.

"That's all well and good, but what about this other boy...?" Wilbur asked, after Liz had ended. Vi swallowed, and had to resist the urge to make herself invisible. She pressed herself back in her seat and slid down, as if she could hide.

Liz leaned forward and gave Vi a grim, yet amused look.

"Ah, so that's how you keep my secrets!" she said reproachfully, yet with a bitter amusement. Vi felt how her face turned hot. Her mouth was completely dry, she had no idea what to say.

"Who is it anyway, if I may ask? Do I know him?" Wilbur asked curiously, turning to Liz. Liz swallowed and looked over to Vi. Vi was paralyzed. At the same moment Wilbur whirled around.

"You know it, right? Who is it? Do I know him?" he asked Violet instead. Vi groaned inwardly. Apparently Wilbur planned to figure out what was going on here. Great...

Vi looked at Liz, looking for a sign, that told her what her blonde friend was up to do now. Vi felt as if she had been thrown into icy water. Oh God, what if it happened now?! If it came out now? When Liz now told him that she had a crush on Wilbur for years already! Liz would simply say _"I love you, Wilbur, so much! But I was too scared to tell you"_ and Wilbur would say _"Oh, really, that's nice, I like you too" _and then Liz would say _"Cool, let's smooch!"_and then they would kiss - Okay, maybe Violet's fantasy ran riot there, but something like this could probably happen! She fervently wished anything to happen, something that would save her from this unbearable situation! An earthquake that would bring down the Cinema for example! She hated her life at this moment, she wanted to be somewhere else. Just a few minutes ago Wil was about to hate Liz, but Vi just had to convince him to join them! And now her two friends came along so well! They hadn't talked that much with each other within the last two years. Vi had to do something!

"The movie begins!" Vi suddenly heard her own voice saying, before Liz could answer.

"Bad red-herring" Wilbur replied with a grin.

"Sorry... I thought, uhm, I thought the curtain had moved ..." Violet said meekly, and sank back into her seat. What should she do now?

"Oh, girls and their secretiveness!" she heard Wilbur saying, after none of the girls wanted to tell him who the mysterious boy was. He folded his arms, pretending to be offended.

"It's not important who it is ..." Liz started, "Pete feels bad and it's my fault... I'll call him tomorrow and apologize. Hopefully we can work this out in a peaceful manner."

"Good thing," Wilbur agreed. Thus the topic of the mysterious crush was off the stove for now. Violet dared to breath a sigh of relief, but the evening wasn't over yet... Something could still happen.

"I feel so sorry that it escalated in the end... but ... well, you know him" Liz explained to justify herself.

"Pete's a pretty stubborn guy." Wilbur said with a smile, "but that can be overlooked."

"Overlook?" Liz replied, surprised, "You've never had a relationship with him, dear, there's a few things that you can't overlook!" she joked with a grimace, then she giggled.

"I don't want to know any details, please!" Wilbbur laughed.

"Hmm, I could invite him to the tournament." Liz pondered after a pause, placing a finger to her chin, then she bent over to Wilbur, "You wanna come too?"

"What tournament?" he asked in surprise.

"Well, I do gymnastics."

"Right, Vi told me about it."

"So, what about it?" Liz asked hopefully.

"Sure! I've always wanted to see, how these... gymnastatics do... gymnastics... No seriously, i have no idea. What are you doing there anyway? Is it like those performers from the circus?" he asked.

"No, it's quite different, i guess" Liz giggled.

"You sure? No juggling? No rope dances?" he asked disappointed.

"No - " Liz began, but Wilbur interrupted.

"No trapeze? No Lions? No burning motorcicles?"

"No!" she contradicted, but Wilbur didn't stop.

"No magicians? Not even clowns?" he said, all over dramatically.

"You really can be annoying!" Liz responded with a wry smile.

"Me? Never! Vi can confirm that, right? I never annoy anyone!" he said, slightly exaggerating, hoping that Violet would jump in to contradict him. He wanted to include her into the conversation because for some reason she was peculiarly quiet today. But Violet just stared gloomily into the void. Was she listening to them at all?

"Like yesterday?" Liz asked with a knowing smile.

"Wooow, wait a sec!" Wilbur exclaimed, waving his hands, "Yesterday I was the annoyed one! Because lil' Violet happens to be hopelessly old-fashioned!" he protested vigorously.

"Yepp, I already noticed that," Liz announced with a grin.

"You should've seen her when she used a transport tube for the first time!" he laughed and puffed Violet slightly with his elbow.

"You should have seen her face, when she was in one of the flying bubbles!" Liz said and bursted out laughing.  
Vi had to pull herself together, to not start groaning in annoyance. Suddenly she was in an extremely bad mood. Great, now the two started mocking her. And why did they come along so well anyway? Why was Liz so outgoing and talkative? Violet couldn't stand it anymore, she had to get out to get some fresh air and to calm down.  
She stood up abruptly.

"I'll go get something to drink. You want something?" she asked, without looking at them. She tried to hide her bad mood, but was only able to speak with a completely monotone voice.

"No need to be offended..." Liz said, caringly. After all, she and Wilbur were just kidding.

"I'm not offended, I just slept bad, I'm tired as hell... and now I'm thirsty." Violet said, trying to keep a somewhat normal tone. Wilbur grinned and leaned over to Liz.

"Does she always become so crotchety when she's tired?" he whispered to Liz, but so loud that Violet could easily hear it. Violet looked from the corner of her eye and stirred over the fact that he came so close to Liz.

"Always!" Liz agreed with a pseudo-whisper too.

"Do you want something now?!" Violet asked more forcefully, and you could hear clearly that she was pretty annoyed.

The two disagreed. Vi then left the room almost rushed. Outside, she first took a deep breath and then she got herself a Coke to get awake again. Only when she was outside, she thought that it probably was a bad idea to let the two alone. She started to panic a little and rushed back to return to the cinema.

* * *

"Will your parents be there too? I mean, at this turnament" Wilbur asked the blonde girl beside him.

"Yo, my mom .." Liz said casually. First, she wondered about this question, but then she knew. Obviously Violet had told him about her private... situation. This girl couldn't keep sonething for herself!  
Liz leaned back and gave Wilbur a weary look.

"Do your parents impose a lot of pressure on you too?" She asked bitterly, after a pause. Against her expectations, Wilbur started laughing.

"They better sould! It couldn't hurt me," he replied, with a grin. Liz looked into his eyes and had to smile inevitably. She had to suppress a dreamy sigh. He was so cute, she couldn't believe her bliss, sitting right next to him and even talking to him. At that moment, everything was perfect. Nothing could go wrong today.

They were interrupted when the lights went out in the hall and the holographic movie started. Wilbur was a little impatient because Vi wasn't back yet. Also Liz turned around to look for her. Shortly after Vi came back, stumbling her way through the other people. Violet was reliefed because for now the conversation was interrupted at least, so she didn't have to listen to their talk any longer. Then, however, she had a horrible thought: the two didn't necessarily needed to "talk"! Vi found herself peeping over to them, to make sure that Wilbur didn't put his arm around Liz' shoulders...

"Vi, you're getting paranoid ..." she thought in frustration. She hadn't slept well, and probably she was totally getting caught up with this. She had to calm down, after all nothing had happened until now.

And even if something happened between them - what could she do about it? She was completely powerless!  
Violet wasn't able to follow the movie, she only saw blurred shapes and colors that swirled around the room. She was too distracted by the pictures in her mind's eye. She incessantly imagined some absurd horror scenarios about how it would be, when Wilbur and Liz were a couple. Vi felt, how the pressure on her chest was getting bigger, as if a heavy burden lay on it. She would have to get used to this feeling...

She startled from her bitter thoughts, when she felt a vibration around der left wrist. Relief and horror streamed through her simultaneously. She was glad that she was able to get out of here! On the other hand, she wasn't too keen in another encounter with Cobra. He was the only villain they had to fight. There were other criminals in this time, but those were nothing superheroes would have to take care of, like imposters or tax dodgers.

Out of the corner of her eye Violet looked over to Liz, who was staring at the holo-projections. Then Wilbur turned to Vi and returned her gaze. He also had one of the team watches, equipped with a transmitter and a communicator. She looked into his brown eyes, which now appeared almost black in the darkness of the hall. Vi could totally understand Liz' feelings and she wondered why she hadn't fallen for him immediately herself. For a moment she was lost in the features of his attractive face, which was illuminated from one side only by the holographs - after a few seconds though, she wondered why he was looking at her so impatiently. With a nod and a shooing movement of his hand, Wilbur showed her to leave the room. Vi had been so lost in thought that she completely forgot the emergency call - until her bracelet vibrated for a second time. Startled, she got up and stumbled once more over the other moviegoers, clumsily stepping on some feet, earning some angry comments. She apologized and hurriedly left the room.

For Wilbur it wasn't so easy to disappear unnoticed, after all, Liz was sitting right next to him. He couldn't get up and leave without her noticing it. He needed a good excuse, otherwise she might follow them, and that would only make things more complicated. Why did Cobra always have such a damn bad timing? Then, however, Wilbur had a spontaneous idea. Hopefully it worked. He turned to Liz and nudged her gently. Surprised, she turned to him and looked at him with her big blue eyes.

"I'll go and look for Violet" he whispered into her ear. Liz pulled her head back in surprise and looked puzzled at Violet's empty seat.

"Where is she?" She asked, confused.

"I don't know, she's been away for a while." Wilbur explained, although Vi had left only a minute ago, "I'll take a look where she stays so long. You stay here and tell me everything that I missed" he continued with a charming smile.

"Okay," Liz said with a wide grin, and maybe a little too loud. Immediately, someone in the row behind them complained with an angry "Shh!"

"I'll be right back!" Wilbur whispered and left the hall, moving not as clumsy as Violet, but the people were still impatient and annoyed because they were disturbed again.

Outside the cinema Wilbur was bewildered with a spectacular, yet very, very unusual sight. There was a crowd in front of the building - well, that wasn't uncommon, but the numerous police cars and the helicopters, that circled around the block, were more than unusual. The light cones of searchlights wandered over streets and buildings, countless onlookers were on the road, to see what the whole fuss was about. In between Wilbur discovered outside broadcast vehicles and journalists with cameras and microphones. There wasn't only the tremendous noise of thousands of voices but also the annoying sound of countless sirens. How should he find Violet in this chaos?


	4. Chapter 4

**There is a little bit of fangirling in this chapter, I'm sorry! I tried to base it on my personal memories about my crush back in school (also in the last chapter). That's why it might sound pretty pathetic here and there, hehe ^^; Sorry about that. I hope you like it anyway!**

* * *

Suddenly, someone grabbed Wilbur's arm from behind. He jerked around. It was Violet, who looked anything but happy.

"Why did it take so long?!" She hissed, almost aggressive.

"Don't panic! What should I do?" he began, uncomprehendingly, "Now Liz sits there all alone and wonders where we are -" he tried to defend himself, but Violet interrupted him.

"Poor lil' Liz, all alone!" she muttered sarcastically. Wilbur didn't know how to interpret this behavior.

"What's wrong with you today?" he asked, confused.

"Nothing ..." she said darkly, and before he could say something, she activated the communicator on her wrist, "Flame?"

"Building of the Federal Reserve Bank, now!" a familar voice promptly came from the little device. Vi and Wilbur looked at each other in surprise. Were it just them, or did Flame's voice sound... happy...?

"What happened?" Violet asked carefully.

"You won't believe it! A real bank robbery!" Flame shrieked excitedly into the communicator. Now Wil and Vi really looked at each other surprised. A bank robbery? In Todayland? That wasn't Cobra's style. He rather acted undetected in the underground, without leaving any trace. But this was a fantastic show. The whole city seemed to be on the streets. And the ones who were not on the road to gawk what was happening, were leaning out of the windows of the skyscrapers to snatch at a glance.  
The two made their way through the crowds. It wasn't easy to come forward, as most streets were blocked off by the police. Finally, they couldn't get any closer to the Bank. The whole area around the building was cordoned off. They had to take a detour. In an empty side street they found a quiet corner in which they changed their clothes quickly. Yet they still had the problem to pass the blocked road... Vi put on her mask, and looked carefully around the corner of a house, in an attempt to find a way. If she made herself invisible, she could perhaps succeed to sneak undetected into the bank. She would have a problem, however, if infrared cameras were set up. They had to come up with something, before -

Her thoughts were interrupted when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled up into the air, all of a sudden she had no ground under her feet anymore. Startled, she clung to Wilbur, who was flying up with his rocket boots, and after a few seconds landed on the roof of the building beside them. Once up there, he let her go.

"Argh! I hate it when you do that!" Violet cried angrily.

"You're welcome" was everything Wilbur replied. He rolled his eyes and decided to simply ignore her stupid behavior today, finally they currently didn't have the time to fight. He turned away from her and looked down to the streets below them. Everything was full of journalists, police, robots and police-robots. Then he looked over to the bank building and thoughtfully put his hands akimbo. If they would fly over there, someone would surely discover them...

"Next time it would be really nice if you warn me, before you... hoick me!" Violet growled behind him. He turned to her and nodded his head over to the bank building that stood about 170 feet on the other side of the intersection. Violet looked back at him completely dumbfounded.

"May I, my lady?" he then asked over-gallantly, bowing down.

Vi groaned. Why wasn't she able to fly herself?! Then she wouldn't be reliant on him to carry her around. But then she groaned discouragedly. Only now she realized why she had been so reluctant to get a pair of rocket botts herself: she had told the others that it was because these boots wouldn't become invisible, but if she was honest with herself now, she had to admit that she enjoyed being carried around in Wilbur's arms.

"Go ahead," she said a little too brash. He put her on his arms, and she wrapped her slender arms around his neck. Wilbur then stood at the edge of the building, in order to have a better view of the hustle and bustle below them. He didn't want to take off when one of the spotlights was focused right on their flight path, or when a helicopter crossed their way. While he observed the area highly concentrated, Vi couldn't take her eyes off him. She was pretty much yearning for him. He had become quite strong within the last years, in the past he didn't have the strength to carry her like this on his arms, at least not longer than maybe two minutes, bot now he stood there as if her weight didn't matter at all. And since when was he so damn attractive?! And he smelled so good -  
When Violet realized what she was doing, she was not only confused, but disgusted and ashamed of herself. She squinted her eyes, hoping that she could get out of this situation soon, before she started drooling all over him!

"Are you scared of heights?" She heard Wilbur's voice asking. Vi opened her eyes again and looked at him confused.

"No!" she protested. That was ridiculous - a superhero with a fear of heights...! Then she realized that he probably asked that because she desperately clung to him with squinted eyes - how should she explain this?

"I mean ... um, yes, I have a fear of heights to be hontest!" she corrected herself hastily, "But don't tell anyone!"

Wilbur merely raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He turned his attention back to the environment. Vi then suddenly felt how he tensed his muscles. She tightened the grip around his neck.

"Okay, take-off in three, two, one - !" he exclaimed with a low voice, and then it went straight up into the air. Vi struggled to hold on, because Wilbur performed some hair-raising moves to avoid the searchlights. Only a few seconds later, they landed on the roof of the bank. They immediately took cover behind a ventilation shaft, to avoid being discovered by the numerous television and police helicopters. However, they were not the first ones with this idea.

"Well that was very unobtrusive," they suddenly heard a familiar voice behind them. They jerked around. It was M, and behind her Flame was crouching, who gave the two newcomers an impatient glance. All of them were masked and wore the same black and blue outfit. Since Wilbur was the only one who had access to special technology without attracting attention, he had been responsible to get them suits. He took the opportunity to design these suits after his personal taste. Therefore, each suit had the Captain Future symbol printed on the chest. Violet and Flame were less than happy about that, only Emely was delighted - but not so much the design, but rather about the fact that they let her participate.

"There you are, finally!" Flame said, to express her impatience, but before Wilbur and Violet could justify, she continued exitedly, "Okay, two robbers have entrenched themselves in the strongroom. They took the staff and a few customers hostage. In the foyer, there are two police officers, one security guard and a few civilians. One of the policemen is wounded. There's a pretty tough gunfight down there," she rattled, while she drew the outlines of the rooms with her finger on the dusty ground, marking the positions of the involved persons with crosses.

"The police seems totally overextended, they have no idea how to deal with the situation," M added.

"How should they? They have no experience with such things," Vi said, who had always wondered, what the police of this time was doing all day long when there was no crime.

"And the plan?" Wilbur asked. As the oldest of them Flame had taken over the command, she had accepted the responsibility for the team. As long as you didn't questioned her authority or opposed her, you didn't have any problems with her.

"Vi and I will try to distract and overwhelm these guys, we are bulletproof after all." She began resolutely, "Wil, you'll get the wounded policemen out of here. We have no idea how severe the injury is... if it's not treated immediately, it might be too late."

Wilbur nodded, and felt the uncomfortable weight of responsibility resting on his shoulders. Normally he and Emely were the ones who cared for distracting the enemy, but usually they were dealing only with a few robots robots or clones, and not with trigger-happy criminals who had taken hostages. He swallowed.

"And me? What do I do?" Emely whispered excitedly and seesawed impatiently. Flame smiled at her little sisters ambition.

"You are the substitude, sweetheart" she said, with a wink, "If something happens to one of us you have to take his place."

"I'm benched?" Emely asked indignantly.

"Want to takeover my place? I'd rather like to be a bench-warmer!" Wilbur said with a wry smile. Emely looked at him and frowned.

"... No, thanks... "she murmured. Given the need to actually go into danger, being a substitude seemed to be the more attractive alternative.

"I also need you to calm the hostages." Flame continued with portentous severity, "The last thing we need are a few civilians running headlessly in the line of fire."

Emely took a deep breath, then nodded determined.

"Got it?" Flame ask one last time. No one had objections, which did not mean that they had no concerns, "Then let's go!" she cried.

They entered the building through one of the large windows on the roof. They were on the top floor and had to run through a few corridors until they reached the foyer and the strongroom. The corridor ended at a large gallery, from which you looked down into the foyer. Wilbur stopped and stared open-mouthed into the large room below them. The scene that met his eyes seemed like from a movie. Shots flew hissing through the air, and left bright streaks of light. The smoke of the guns and the smell of ammunition filled the huge room. The windows were completely destroyed, the beams of the searchlights fell into the room and drew sharp lines in the smoke of the weapons. Down in the foyer stood some very old-fashioned, heavy wooden tables, with green desk lamps placed on them. A few completely frightened people were squatting under the tables. Directly below the gallery one of the heavy mahogany tables had been turned over, behind it two police officers and a security guard of the bank took cover. They were under heavy fire, which came from the strongroom. They weren't able to shoot back, she shots hit the thick wooden board mercilessly. One of the policemen was lying motionlessly on the ground.  
Wilbur was so overwhelmed by this setting for a moment, that he almost forgot about his task. When he came around again, the others were already in the lower floor.

Flame rushed without hesitation towards the robbers into the strongroom. The two masked people opened fire in shock. But since Flame was in her plasma form, the shots went straight through her, without any effect. Like a huge ball of fire, she rushed towards them. Meanwhile Vi positioned herself in front of the hostages, who crouched on a wall of the strongroom, and activated her force field, so no more shots came through. When the hostages (who had in their life never seen a real super), saw her, they were confused and started to panic. But just in time Emely jumped right in front of the group.

"Take it easy! Don't panic!" she said quietly. She didn't dare to use telepathy, because that would have scared that people even more probably. She could feel the people's fear, their emotions were like a raging storm within her. Subliminally, so that people didn't notice, she used her powers to calm them down.

Much to Flame's regret the bandits caught on quickly! One of them tore an antiquated fire extinguisher from the wall, while Flame just wanted to pounce at the other one. Within seconds he had sprayed the foam! Flame's fire extinguished - as if they had blown out a candle! Suddenly Flame stood there, covered all over with foam and looked around in confusion. Even Violet stared at her, with her jaw dropped. Even the robbers didn't expect that the fire extinguisher would the _that_efficient. It seemed like an eternity that everybody was just totally stunned in suprise. Vi reckoned that Flame would explode at any moment! Flame tried to ignite her fire again, but it did not work!

* * *

Meanwhile, as the bandits had stopped shooting, Wilbur flew down to the policemen. Both, the security guard and the uninjured police officer pointed their guns at him, when he landed beside them.

"Stop! I'm one of the good guys!" Wilbur cried hastily and raised his hands. Until this day he had never needed to justify, after all they had only faught against Cobra, a few mindless clones and some lifeless robots. There had never been anyone to whom he would have to make his position clear. And now that he actually did, it sounded kind of stupid.

"My friends just take care of the Bandits" he added hastily, as the two still didn't take down their guns. The policeman lowered his weapon slowly, after all Wilbur's statement was confirmed by the fact that the fire had stopped, but he still kept an eye on the young man suspiciously.

"I'm here to get the injured policemen out of here," Wilbur then said conscientiously. Immediately the policeman's expression changed. He waved Wilbur to come over, then he layed a hand on the unconscious policeman's shoulder and shook him gently.

"Sharon, wake up," he said softly. Only now Wilbur realized, that the injured policeman was a woman... and only now he saw the gaping abdominal wound and the blood ... so much blood ... and suddenly he started feeling a little queasy. That was so ... real...! On television, the blood always had a really deep red colour, almost black, but in fact it was light, almost orange... And that smell! For a moment he was so dizzy that he briefly lost his balance and swayed.

"Boy! Pull yourself together!" He heard the stern voice of the old security guard, who had noticed his reaction. Wilbur swallowed, pulling himself together.

"Yeah, right!" he said with a toneless voice, then he bent down to the woman and took her gently on his arms. Then he activated his rocket boots and flew out through one of the broken windows.

Outside, everything was full of police, people began to scream, and bright light cones turned on him when he flew out and landed. He was so blinded that he could barely see.

"He's got a hostage!" Someone shouted.

"Don't shoot!" The policewoman called, semi-conscious with her last strength, but Wilbur doubted they heard her. He didn't understand, what was going on anyway. Who had a hostage? And who shouldn't be fired? When he turned around, he only saw his own long shadow on the road. He gulped and turned back again. He saw in the harsh light that not only all eyes, but all weapons were pointed on him - a whole lot of weapons! Then he realized what was going on ...

"Immediately, put your h-h-hands up!" someone yelled, stammering from fear, "O-o-or we'll shoot!"  
Wilbur put the injured policewoman gently on the ground. Immediately, a pool of blood formed on the dark asphalt. Wilbur broke in a cold sweat.

"Uh, folks, someone here needs urgent medical attendance!" he cried, and had to stop himself from getting hysterical.

"I said, t-t-take your hands up!" the frightened policeman shouted back.

Wilbur didn't know how to react. He decided to do what they asked of him for once. He slowly picked up his arms.

#

Meanwhile Violet became nervous. Flame was about to pounce on the two robbers, although she wasn't able to turn into her fire shape. But if she wasn't in her plasma form, she was vulnerable - she could be killed! Flame grabbed one of the two and twisted his arm behind his back, so that he screamed in pain. She put her other arm around his throat and choked him. The other guy pulled a gun and pointed it at Flame's head. Violet hesitated – right now there was no need to protect the hostages with her force field ... Then she made herself invisible and lunched at the one with the gun! Since he didn't see her coming, she could hit the weapon out of his hand unexpectedly and with full force.

The other one was able to free his arm. He gave Flame a hard blow in the stomach. She collapsed in pain and dropped down on her knees, where she recieved a hard kick right in her face. After she was knocked out, the robber grabbed the weapon from the floor and pointed it at Flame, who was reeling while trying to get up on her feet again. Vi jumped in front of her, to protect her with a force field.

"Lets get out of here!" the other robber cried, the one Violet had struck the weapon from his hand. The other robber hesitated, then he took the gun down and pulled out another device. He pointed it at the opposite wall. Within seconds a green glowing circle formed, appearantly floating in the air! Inside the circle some dimly structures became visible...

"What is this?" Violet asked, breathlessly. Was that another weapon? Flame didn't realize what was going on. A little dazed, she looked around while these guys suddenly started to run towards this floating circle on the wall with full speed!

"That's a portal!" Emely cried.

Violet and Emely both ran after the criminals. They had almost reached them, Violet was just about to grab one of them, right at the very moment when the two robbers jumped into the circle! But instead of getting them, the two grils crashed against the massive stone wall of the strongroom. Needless to say that it was quite painful. Flame winced only from the sight of it.  
When the two had struggled up in pain, they looked at each other dumbfounded. The shimmering green circle has disappeared. Flame looked at them disappointed. Their first mission as guardians of the law against real criminals... a defeat ...?

The policeman and the security guard came hesitantly out from behind the large mahogany table. All they saw were three young Supers and a bunch of frightened hostages ...  
The policeman took his futuristic walkiee-talkie.

"The delingquents have fled, I repeat, the delingquents fled," he said wearily into the walkie-talkie.

"Are you sure? The building is surrounded! Nobody came out." a hissing voice answered on the other end.

"They are gone..." the policeman replied with a weak voice, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Then he waved the hostages from the strongroom to come to him, while the security guard cared for the people, who had entrenched themselves among the tables in the foyer. Emely led the hostages out of the strongroom.  
Vi looked around in the meantime.

"Where is Wilbur?" she asked, a little concerned.  
Before anyone could respond, the front doors of the bank suddenly exploded! The people, who had gathered in the foyer, started screaming in fright. Suddenly, a special unit of the police broke through the front doors (or what was left of them) - it were huge, heavily armed robots! When they saw the supers, they pointed their guns at them immediately!

"Stop! Don't fire!" the policeman cried, and positioned himself between the supers and the robots. The robots pushed him aside carelessly and trudged in lockstep towards the girls.

"When Wilbur's smart," Flame began, and backed away uncomfortably, while the robots, which were staring at them with their glowing red eyes, "then he has buzzed off! And that's exactly what we should do aswell!" she cried, and ran away, Emely and Vi followed her on the heels. At that precise moment, the robots opened fire!

* * *

"Listen, I'm one of the good guys!" Wilbur said to the policemen while he raised his hands and was blinded by hundred lights.

"On the ground! Now!" shouted another policeman, whose voice didn't sound intimidated and fearful, but hysterical. Wilbur didn't feel very comfortable at the thought that such people had their fingers on the trigger. What if they accidentally shot him?

"Wait, shall I put my hands up or lie down on the floor?" Wilbur whined confused. To his surprise, they didn't answere immediately, because the policemen appeared to be confused themelves. That was his chance!

"I can only do once at a time. If I lie down, I have to take down my hands, but when I do that, you'll shoots me. And if I don't lay on the floor, you'll shoot me too. So, you shoot me either way. Guys, let's be honest, that's not fair!" he complained. Somewhere in front of him, he heard a muffled murmur. The policemen seemed to confer. In the meantime Wilbur started feeling pretty hot in the beams of the searchlights. He heard shots from inside the bank again. It sounded like a fierce firefight. He had to get in there again!

"Okay," began the hysterical cop again, "You leave your hands up, and then go down to your knees, then you take your hands down, and then you lie on the floor."

"Ingenious plan, brilliant plan! Man, you are real pros! I am glad that the fate of the city is in such capable hands!" Wilbur cried out with exaggerated admiration, and the policemen seemed to feel flattered, at least Wilbur heard pleased murmur.

"And I would really like to stay to whatch your excellent police work, but unfortunately I have to leave! See ya!" he ended, activated his rocket boots and jumped up in the air and with a somersault he flew through one of the broken windows back into the bank again, leaving two dozens of confused policemen behind. He only hoped that the wounded woman would come through.

Inside, there was a totally unexpected szene. The people were gone, just like the bandits, instead there stood a dozen gigantic robots in the foyer and shot around like crazy. Violet tried her best to resist the shots with the force field, while Emely and Flame stood behind her, trying to open a side door. Wilbur had no idea what to do. Suddenly he heard Emely's voice inside his head.

_"Come here! We need your help!"_

At that moment, all three girls ran through the open door. Wilbur jumped from the balustrade and also shot through the door, flying with a breakneck speed. Because he approached the robots from behind, they didn't see him coming. And when they saw him disappearing through the door, it was too late. As soon as he was through, Flame and Emely slammed the metal door shut and locked it, but it was dented immediately by the shots.

"That won't last for long!" Violet cried concerned above the muffled noise of the shots.

"Then we should get out of here as fast as possible!" Wilbur responded, grabbed her and flew with her outside through the next destroyed window, Emely carried Flame (or tried to at least) and followed them.  
Since they were in a hurry, Wilbur had no opportunity to look out for flying objects or searchlights - therefore they almost crashed into a helicopter when they flew to the coop.

* * *

Twenty minutes later.  
Our team had fled to the roof of a tall building, two blocks away from the bank. Now they sat there frustrated and let their legs dangle over the edge. The mood was bad. They hadn't even taken the time to put on their everyday clothes again. Depressed and disappointed they observed the hype sixty floors beneath their feet. The bank was surrounded by a crowd. The whole city seemed to be there, to whatch this spectacle. One broadcast vehicle after another flew through the street towards the bank, or at least tried to. Although it was night, everything was illuminated brightly. All residents had switched the lights on to observe the hustle and bustle from their apartment. The stars could barely compete against the mass of artificial lights.  
Flame took it really hard. While the others observed the people on the streets, she had put her face in her hands. She had dried blood on her face from the nose bleed.  
Wilbur looked over at Vi. Her blue eyes seemed darker than usual, while she stared lost in thought into the disntace.

"A bank robbery ... a stupid bank robbery ..." Flame murmured in frustration, "Crap."

"We did a good job ... no one was hurt or killed ..." Emely tried to cheer her up, "Except for this one police-lady, but that wasn't our fault -" she corrected herself. Flame tore her hair furiously.

"If we had done a good job, we would have caught these bastards!" she snapped at her little sister, so that Wilbur and Violet jerked back.

"This entire mission was messed up right from the start!" she added, frustrated and let her head fall back into her hands.

"Let's get together tomorrow to make a detailed error analysis" Vi said suddenly, and seemed pretty sober, "Who has done something wrong, what are sources of error, how can we eliminate them -" she stopped and turned at Flame in surprise, "I didn't know that fire fighting foam can incapacitate you... "

Flame seemed to shrink, at the same time it suddenly became very hot on the roof.

"Me neither," she said angrily, almost a little offended, "Crappy foam!" she added. Then she stood up and turned her back to the others. She stood there for a while in silence, pondering. Wilbur was afraid that she would explode at any moment and that the people might discover it from below.

"I go home ..." Flame murmured finally, drooping sadly and shuffled towards the door, that was leading to the staircase. The others whatched her leaving. When the door had closed, Emely breathed deeply.

"I will accompany her... in case she wants to explode on the way home" she said with a wry smile and gave Wilbur a slight poke in the ribs. He returned the smile. She patted his shoulder and stood up.

"You were great!" she said encouragingly.

"Thanks, you too!"

"Oh, I didn't do anything! But you! You were totally courageous how you saved that wounded woman! That was cool!" M laughed. Then she waved and hurried after Flame down the stairs.

"Yeah, did you hear that? I'm cool! And I don't even have super powers!" he joked, but when he turned to Violet, she didn't show a single sign of reaction. She didn't seem to have noticed what he had just said. Had she noticed that Emely and Flame were gone at all? She looked thoughtfully down at the lights of the city, without really seeing them.

"Well ..." Wilbur began after a pause, but she still did not respond, "... I ... I think I'll go home too..."

"What ...?" Violet asked, and jerked around to face him. She really hadn't been listening. What was wrong with her today?

"Going home ..." he repeated, "There's nothing to do here..."

Violet rubbed her tired eyes. She was lacking concentration - maybe that was the reason why they had failed...

"Yes ... You're right - "she began, but then her eyes suddenly widened frightened, she gritted her teeth, then she cursed angrily.

"What?" asked Wilbur confused.

"Liz! She's still in the cinema!" Violet cried rushed, jumped up and ran away. Wilbur sighed and followed her.

After they had changed into their normal everyday clothes again, they ran back to the cinema. Onlookers, policemen, reporters, cars, lights and helicopters ... Sirens howled, policemen shouted commands, reporter shouted questions, people chatted, - it was a complete mess. When Liz was still here, it would be impossible to find her. Violet tried to call her via her cell phone, but she didn't answere it.

"So what? Is that so bad?" Wilbur asked, now a little irritated himself, his mood became increasingly worse.

"What shall I tell her, why we left?" Vi asked, almost panicked.

"I don't care, come up with something." he said, annoyed. Vi looked around uneasily, until she came to the conclusion that it was useless to look for Liz here in this turmoil.

"She certainly went back home" Vi tried to convince herself.

"Probably, and we should do the same," Wilbur replied, and put a hand on Vis back, pushing her gentliy towards home. They walked in silence for a while, the mood was depressed.

Wilbur somehow had the feeling that Violet was mad at him ... She had hardly said anything the whole evening and was irritable. He remained silent, simply to test whether she would say something, but she was shrouded in silence, staring straight ahead. Something about this evening was fishy – aside from the bank robbery. He didn't believe that it was because Pete and Liz had broken up. Why should this effect her so much? And he also doubted, that she was in a bad mood because of the bank robbers. The way she had suggested an error analysis, all calmly and soberly, as if it was merely a messed up math test...

"Sorry, if I ask again, but what's wrong with you today?" he asked, when he could no longer stand the silence.

"With me?" Vi asked, a little too surprised.

"You seem a little... tensed..." Wilbur said carefully.

"Tensed?" Vi asked puzzled, then her mood changed, "I'm not tensed, I'm pissed! We just failed all along the line! Two common criminals against three Supers and a – well, whatever you are – and yet we couldn't stop them! And to make matters worse, the police shot at us! We could have been killed, though we fight on the same side! That are enough reasons to be angry, don't you think?!"

"Okay, okay..." Wilbur said, raising his hands, "I just don't want to fight with you again."

"When did we fight?" Violet asked, annoyed.

"Yesterday?" Wilbur said dryly.

"That wasn't a fight...!" Vi said casually, but then suddenly her eyey widened. Wilbur was about to ask her what was wrong, when her mood changed completely again! She stopped and turned to him and grabbed his shirt with both hands.

"I'm sorry that I forced you to help me! Really! And that I have ruined your Friday night! I'm so so sorry!" she reeled. For a moment Wilbur was convinced that she was making fun of him, but one look into her blue eyes told him that she was serious... He even thought, that he saw fear in her eyes. Wilbur didn't even know, how to react, he actually believed that he was the one to blame. Why did she apologize for it now? The situation was so strange – well, if he fairly considered, the whole evening had been strange ...

"All right!" he began to calm her, taking her hands and pulling them off his shirt, "I'm sorry too" he said, and he meant it. For him, the issue was done with that, he started to turn away and go further, when Violet almost frantically grabbed his arm and held him back.

"No, you don't need to apologize! **I'm** sorry! It was **my **fault. I should have never be so mean to you!"

"Now don't exaggerate!" Wilbur replied. Slowly the situation started scaring him.

"So, you're not mad at me?" Violet asked hopefully, almost imploringly.

"No, of course not!" Wilbur contradicted determinedly. What was going with this girl today?

"Okay!" Vi said with a deep sigh of relief. She turned around and looked like nothing had happened. No need to mention that Wilbur was more than confused. They continued their way home without further eerie incidents.

* * *

When Wilbur finally arrived at home, all his relatives sat in front of the television. A special news program was on. They saw pictures of the bank and the surrounding area, which were obviously filmed by one of the helicopters. Then the image switched to a reporter who stood in the crowd in front of the bank and spoke into the camera, in the background flickered police sirens, helicopters circled in the sky and yellow warning tape hung everywhere. Hadn't Wilbur been there a few minutes ago and hadn't seen this spectacle with his own eyes, he would have believed that it was a movie. For ages nothing comparable had happened in Todayland.

"Can you believe it? A bank robbery!" Franny said to him when he entered the room.

"There haven't been bank robberies for more than twenty years, ever since they installed burglar-proof safes..." his grandpa said explaining, which was pretty useless, because everyone in this room knew about that. Again, everybody stared at the big screen. The reporter spoke, while some video clips were shown.

"According to the police, the bandits disappeared with diamonds worth several million dollars. Fortunately, there were few casualties. Most of the people will get away with a few scratches and a shock. The wounded police officer is currently in an urban hospital. She was put into an artificial coma." The reporter's voice said, while they saw footage of an ambulance. Wilbur swallowed. He knew it wasn't his fault that this woman was so badly injured, and he had done his best to get her medical help as soon as possible... Nevertheless, he felt guilty. He tensed, because he feared that this story could still come to a bad end. Meanwhile, the reporter continued.

"The identities of the robbers are still unknown, but we have video material, which proofs that some of them are human beings with superpowers," the reporter said, as if he was an expert. Wilbur's jaw dropped. Stunned, he stared at the screen. There was a video, that showed how Wilbur escaped from the police. That he had brought out the wounded cop previously was not shown! He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, angry about that it was cut the way that every viewer must think that the team would have something to do with the crime. He didn't even have superpowers!

Besides that, he noticed that he looked pretty cool with this outfit - he carefully looked around. He feared that his family might recognize him, but nobody seemed to notice anything. Then images from inside the bank were shown, right at the scene where a few shadowy shapes escaped from the police robots.

"Supers ...?" Tallulah asked incredulously.

"Shh!" the others made all at once, while the reporter continued.

"According to witnesses, there was a conflict between the criminals during the robbery. Some even say that the Supers had tried to stop the robbers. We assume, that there was a dispute about the haul. However, that's not confirmed yet. The only certainty is that a bank was robbed and Supers were involved, who have done nothing to prevent it."

"Bullshit!" Wilbur cried angrily. This agitation against Supers was extremely getting on his nerves! Then he realized that his family was looking at him.

"I just mean ... those are Supers ... I bet they were just trying to help... "

"Well, they did a really great job then!" Aunt Petunia grumbled sarcastically.

"It's not like in the comics, Wilbur..." Cornelius said thoughtfully, without taking his eyes off the screen.

Wilbur was annoyed, even more, he was offended. He knew it wasn't like in the comics, after all, he had been there and had seen it with his own eyes! In the comics, the supers and the police worked together hand in hand, but here they were almost shot! The reporter continued to make more absurd assumptions. Wilbur couldn't bear this crap any longer. He left the living room and went to his room.  
He threw himself on his bed, thinking. Slowly he realized why Flame was so angry that these criminals had escaped... It wasn't just a trifle. The people relied on that Supers solved problems and stopped criminals. That confidence was shaken now...

He remembered something Violet had told him once: people feared supers - they were fine with them, as long as they only fought for the good, but only the slightest suspect that a super could use their powers differntly, was scaring the public. That's why the so called „anti-super-law" has been passed... But that was ages ago...

Well, they failed to stop the robbers... But was that a reason to automatically believe the supers were responsible for the crime?

Finally, how were they supposed to know that these guys had a portal? And that Flame's fire could be extinguished by foam so easily and permanently? Who could have imagined that there was an ancient fire extinguisher in the strongroom anyway, since almost all buildings were fireproof in Todayland? Wilbur turned on his back and stared at the ceiling. These guys would certainly strike again. And next time they would catch them. They had to.

* * *

**Since I don't have a beta reader, please tell me when the wording or some scentences sound confusing. Besides that I hope you had fun :D Next chappy will be from Liz' point of view!**


	5. Chapter 5

After a few minutes Liz became impatient. Where were Wil and Vi? She felt pretty stupid to sit here all alone now. She sighed and tried to calm herself. Probably it was nothing. Vi and Wilbur would certainly come back at any moment, after all they didn't want to miss the movie, right? And Liz would end up laughing about the fact that she had been so worried.  
For some time she was distracted by the plot of the film. When she looked at her watch the next time, the two were gone for fifteen minutes already. What could take them so long?  
Slowly, her mood became bad, and the movie started to annoy her. If something had happened, was it too much to tell her about it, rather then leaving her alone to waste away in here?  
She thought about the recent events. Somehow everything felt very strange. Why did Violet leave? She had been very silent the whole evening already... and now, when Liz thought about it, she realized that Violet had already behaved strangely yesterday evening... Maybe she had trouble. But why didn't she tell Liz about it? Perhaps Wilbur knew what it was, and that's why he had followed Violet...  
Just speculations, she thought, annoyed. Sure nothing was going on, except that Vi had a bad day and now Liz was the one who suffered because of it. She looked at the watch again and put herself a deadline. If the two - or at least Wilbur - wouldn't be back in five minutes, she would go home. Just when she had made this decision, one of the doors opened suddenly, light shone into the darkness and a hysterical voice filled the spacious hall.

"Out there! You have to see this! A bank is being robbed!"

Everyone turned to the gaunt man standing in the door, he was completely out of breath. Liz also stood up from seat to get a better view. The moviegoers began to whisper, most of them were confused or astonished, some of them thought it was just a joke. But through the open door everybody could hear the noise of sirens and excited people. Some people stood up and left the hall to see what was going on outside.  
Liz had a hunch that this might have something to do with Wilbur's and Violet's disappearance. She left her seat and walked out. Though it was already dark night, she was still blinded when she stepped in front of the cinema. Helicopters with searchlights flew in the air and lit the streets, countless people stood around speculating about the events in the Bank, that was two blocks away. The street was blocked off for pedestrians because police and press vehicles incessantly took off and landed there.  
Liz stood on her tiptoes to glance at the other side of the street. Perhaps the two were over there and couldn't come back over the street. And even if they were still on her side - she looked around - in this crowd of onlookers it would take forever to find them. She sighed, her anger disappeared, her mood, however, was not really better.

All right. They probably had a good excuse for just leaving her there, on the other hand, where was the problem to simply come and pick her up? Anyway ... Vi and Wilbur were now certainly somewhere and enjoyed themselves magnificently, while she was standing around here all alone. Now she had finally gathered all her courage to talk to Wilbur Robinson, and now somebody simply decided to rob a bank to ruin everything for her...

She didn't really care what was going on here actually, and because she had no hope to find Vi or Wil here, she decided to go home. She could look what had happened tomorrow in the news, instead of standing here in this cold and growing roots.  
It was cool. She pulled the coat tighter around her as she made her way home. Somehow, she felt very lonely among all these gawking people.  
The pavements of the main streets were so crowded that it was difficult to come forward. She turned and took a detour down a narrow alley.  
Here she was finally alone. Between the large towers, none the hustle and bustle could be seen or heard anyway, so no onlookers were here. Liz somehow felt melancholic ... Violet was her only real friend, that wasn't a lot... and to be disappointed by this one friend was particularly painful.  
Maybe she had expected too much tonight... she had dumped Pete only yesterday, and now she had already to hit on the next one... It was better to wait until the matter with Pete had cooled down a bit - he certainly wouldn' be thrilled when she would come together with his best friend directly. Oh, she was so excited! She had really made the first move, she had spoken to Wilbur. And it wasn't that hard actually! Although the evening wasn't much as planned, a small smile formed on her lips as she thought of the cute black-haired boy. She was sure that everything would turn out better from now on.  
... she had no idea what was yet to come.

Suddenly she heard a buzzing noise behind her, she was shocked, and when she turned around, she was dazzled by a blinding green light, that was floating in the air! She backed off against a wall, terrified. Petrified she whatched how this light grew, until it formed a circle, hovering in the air, inside she could see some blurry schemes... It looked like a room. She was so frightened that she wasn't even able to scream. Suddenly two masked people jumped out of this floating cricle! They were armed and one of them was holding a device with which he shut the portal once they had passed it.

"Damn, where are we?!" the first one cursed and looked around frantically.

"No idea! I didn't have the time to enter the right coordinates!" said the second one, and immediately began to type something in the strange device.

"Good thing we didn't land in jail, you moron!" the first cried angrily and gave the other one a clout. The other one got furious.

"Watch out!" He threatened and raised his fist.

Suddenly distant police sirens could be heard; they were approaching! The two masked guys jerked around and froze, watching the sky. A floating police car flew over them, but without noticing the two. The criminals hadn't discovered Liz yet. Liz looked up to the vehicle, and struggled with herself: should they call for help? Then the two guys would definitely notice her, and maybe they would shoot her before the police car had landed ... So she remained silent, and hoped that the two wouldn't discover her. The two men waited in silence, without moving, until the police vehicle was gone.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" urged the first, with a frantic whisper.

"Wait a minute!" hissed the other one, "I have to enter a course that they can't trace back."

"Nice, but hurry!"

The robbers seemed so busy that they wouldn't notice if Liz ran through the alley back to the main street – finally, she was in good shape, the two would hardly be able to catch up with her... but if they would shoot, Liz could run so fast she wanted, she wouldn't get away, after all the alley was so narrow, that there was not really a place to take cover... but they might also discover her at any moment; then it would be over anyway. What should she do?  
She decided for the option with the greatest chance of success. She ran. Her feet almost flew over the ground, her steps echoed from the narrow walls of the alley, but she barely heard it because her heart was pounding in her ears. Therefore, she also didn't hear the surprised, angry curses of the bank robbers. But she did hear the shot that was fired. Her heart skipped a beat! She threw herself on the floor to take cover, but before she reached the ground, she was grazed by the shot!  
Luckily, it caught only her thick down coat - but the relief didn't last for long. She suddenly felt a tremendous heat! The grazing shot had put her coat on fire. She tore the thing from my body and wanted to run on, but when she stood up she was already grabbed from behind -  
At first she was surprised at how quickly he had cought up with her, but when he pulled her up and dragged her back to his accomplice, she realized that she hadn't come that far at all. For a moment she was angry about her distorted cognition. She had really thought that she had made it much further.  
Only then she realized the fatality of her situation! And immediately she was paralyzed by a gigantic shock. That was a nightmare! This couldn't really happen...!  
The guy, who held her, had turned her arms painfully behind her back with one hand, and with the other hand he had grabbed her hair, dragging her back to the spot where his buddy was standing with the portal device. Of course, Liz started to panic. Now she was no longer able to weigh what was the best option, she simply tried to pull away to escape somehow from this situation. She was rewarded with a hard blow to her head - for a moment she felt so dizzy that she collapsed. This effect didn't last as long as desired though. Just when one of the bandits wanted to say something, Liz started to beat around with hands and feet like crazy. Now it was just the pure will to survive. She hit the guy, who was holding her, in a sensitive spot between his legs so that he gasped in pain. The other one laughed derisively, while her jacket burned down silently in the distance.

"Now let her leave," he said, still chuckling.

"So she can tell the police about us?!" cried the other one irritated, still in pain as he grabbed Liz' hair again, "I surely won't -"

He was interrupted by another police siren. All of them froze. Liz wanted to use the opportunity to escape and began sreaming frantically - but just when the frist sound left her lips, a hand was pressed over her mouth and nose so that she thought to suffocate.

"Hurry up, I can't hold her for long," she heard a hissing voice right behind her ear, and she felt the warm breath on her neck. How could she ever get out of this mess? Would she make it at all? In her mind's eye she could see the headline of her death. She was terrified and her eyes filled with tears.

The other criminal continued to operate the device, then he held it in the air and the bright light appeared again. The portal opened, inside something like a catwalk was visible, which led through a large room, the lighting seemed artificial. Whatever this place was, Liz didn't want to go there! Again she tried to free herself, but before she had a chance to break free, the two tore her through the floating circle. She passed the portal, without really realizing it. It felt like the penetration of the water surface. She only felt that it was warmer in this enclosed room. The guy had taken his hand from her nose so that she could breathe again, but she was dazed and disoriented. She barely heard the footsteps on the grit balustrade echoing through the huge space, because everything was filled with an extremely loud humming. The air seemed to vibrate from it. Only after a few weary steps, she realized that it was a familiar place: the magnetic power plant! She had already been here on a school trip. She looked down, to be sure. Under her several giant magnets moved and generated energy. They were all circular and had different sizes, so that they all rotated around a common center, however, in different directions. It was one giant Corona Mobile. So, she really was in the power plant. Then the exit was right behind them! There were security guards and surveillance cameras! In here, there was no monitoring. You could only stay briefly here because of the strong magnetism, and cameras didn't worke inside here. At the other end of the bridge another portal opened already.

With her last, desperate power she tried to pull away once more. She slammed the guy, who held her, both elbows painfully in the ribs. Then she twisted out of his grip, and turned to run to the door behind them.

"That's enough!" The guy shouted angrily, and pointed his gun at her.

"No!" cried the other one, who had ran ahead in order to establish the next portal, so he was too far away to do anything.

Liz was startled when she saw the gun directly in front of her, and reacted instinctively when she knocked this thing out of his hand with her fist. The gun flew down between the giant rotating magnets and was torn to tatters by the immense magnetic powers. Liz, however, had no time to examine this interesting phenomenon. Once this guy had lost his gun, she turned around and ran away, but she had underestimated his strength. He grabbed her and pulled her towards the portal. She fought with all her strength. Suddenly he grabbed her by the hair, tore her head back and then slammed her face at the iron railing with brute force. For a second she had a blackout. She regained consciousness quickly, but she was no longer able to defend herself. Blood was heavily dripping from a deep laceration in her face. Suddenly she felt how she was grabbed by her belt and lifted up... and an ultimate certainty overcame her.

"Are you crazy?!" She heard the bewildered voice of the other robber roaring through the room. At that moment she was thrown over the railing. When she fell, she fell face upwards and could see how the catwalk was getting smaller. Hundred feet seemed to be much higher from below than from the top... then her body smashed on cold, magnetic steel.

The girl lay there motionless, while the magnets calmly rotated further, as if nothing happened. The bank robber rubbed his hands.

"Now this snitch won't reveal us for sure!" he said with satisfaction.

After the two had disappeared through the portal, it closed. So the only people were gone, who knew what had happened here.


	6. Chapter 6

The fall from thirty meters height was fatal already, and the magnetism would have killed every other person from this range.  
But for some reason Liz Beckett was still alive ... Even more, she was fully conscious. All her bones were shattered, the molecules of all her cells changed their polarity according to the rotating magnets. That caused an untold pain and still she did not faint. Giant magnetic powers forced on her body, causing a violent vibration. Her bones, whether they were broken or not, felt like they would burst at any moment! She wanted to scream, to call for help, but she had no control over her body. The feeling of thousands of red-hot needles, that drilled deeper and deeper into her flesh, paralyzed her. She seized the blurry outline of the catwalk far above her, the lamps, that were dangling from the high ceiling, and the magnets, that pushed through her field of vision again and again.  
Time passed too slowly when you suffered from such pain. Every time she thought the pain could not get any worse, it got worse! Eventually, the agony was so unbearable, that she started longing for her death, just so the pain stopped.  
Finally, she lost her sense of time. The world was nothing but pain. A sea of knives and salt. Her body was only a single painful mass. Maybe she was already dead - maybe this was hell.

Then, somewhere in this unspeakable agony, behind all the pain, she found herself. Behind all the suffering she found a clarity that she had never felt before. Even though she couldn't see clearly, she felt everything around her; the surface of the magnet, on which she lay, the texture of her clothes on her skin, the weight of her hair, every single blood cell that wandered through her veins. The pain was still there, she was still unable to move, but this clarity, this all-encompassing awareness, was a source of power. A power that exceeded every physical strength by far. She had never felt such an energy, such a force. She didn't know what to do with this power. Finally, she filled her lungs with air, she was aware every single molecule - then the energy discharged with a blood-curdling scream!  
Then something happened. The sound, the vibration of her scream seemed to fill her whole body, the air, the magnets, all elementary particles vibrated in harmony with the sound of her voice, it was a strange, powerful feeling. A pressure wave flowed through the scream, the entire environment, the shockwave could be noticed even at several hundred meters away. All lamps in the power plant exploded, sparks sprayed ... then there was silence.  
There was total darkness. Even now she didn't faint, though she first thought so, because she saw absolutely nothing, and the pain was gone too. But when she moved her hands and feet, she realized that she was still awake ... then she sat up carefully. She couldn't see anything. She paused for a moment in this position, and listened: the loud hum of the rotating magnets had also disappeared. The magnets seemed to have stopped rotating. Astonished Liz raised a hand and clicked her fingers a few times next to her ear. She clearly heard the snap. Surprised, she sat up further and slid over the edge of the magnet. She had no idea that beyond it, it was three meters deep. Suddenly she fell! She got a tremendous shock, but was relieved that she bounced on the floor after a second. She hit on her palms and knees and hurt badly, but compared to the pain she had just endured, it was harmless.  
In the dark, she scrambled on her feet and groped her way forward slowly, until she came to a wall. She felt her way along the wall until she reached a door. Luckily, the door wasn't locked. Nevertheless, it was heavy and Liz struggled to squeeze through it. Outside she saw faint light coming through the narrow window. When she had finally squeezed through the door, she blinked and realized that this was the moonlight. Motes danced in the silver light. Then she noticed that otherwise it was completely dark in the city. And the emergency lighting, that should lead to the exit of the power plant, was extinguished too. But for some reason she was not able to wonder about it.  
She stumbled on through the wide corridors. It was scary because it was pitch dark in the passages without windows. She couldn't think clearly, her mind was only capable for the most basic thoughts. She felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and heard her footsteps echoing through the deserted corridors, while she was looking for an exit. Slowly, she began to feel pain again. From her torn hands and knees, and a pretty bad gash in her face The throbbing in her head seemed to get worse with every step.  
Next to a window, she suddenly discovered a door leading outside. That door also opened as difficult as the one to the magnet room. What Liz didn't know, was, that all the doors actually opened automatically, but in this section were electronically sealed. By the power failure the lock was now open, but the automatic did no longer work, so the doors had to be opened with musclular strength.  
Outside there was a nightmarish scene. Again, it was pitch dark, but the stars and the moon provided some light, the black silhouettes of the houses stood out hard against the dark blue sky.  
Her head ached, she was bleeding, she was cold, she had no idea what had just happened, she was completely stressed out. Like in trance she shuffled further, in the direction of her home. She had apparently come out in some kind of backyard, at least she recognized in the pale moonlight the schemes of dumpsters. But she didn't care. She just wanted to go home, take an aspirin and then fall into her bed and sleep through until Monday. Her breath rose in a cloud of steam before her face.  
She trotted a while, too dazed to think anything, when suddenly she heard a noise and jerked in fright. Then she froze. The noise, a metallic scraping, approached ... she turned around slowly, her heart was pounding. Then she saw in the moonlight, that it was the lid of a garbage can, which was rolling right towards her. She wondered, finally garbage lids did not roll around like that. But then she sighed and shrugged. After all that happened, she did not care. She turned away and was about to leave, when the garbage lid suddenly rolled right between her legs and made her stumble. She fell hard to the ground. She lay flat on her stomach and slowly began to have feelings again. She was annoyed and angry that, after all, she had to stumble over a stupid garbage lid. She straightened up and tried to kick off this stupid thing, but it seemed to be glued on her leg. She kicked a few times in the air, but the lid remained where it was. She stood up and looked down at herself in the dark. The lid was still hanging on her leg. Again she tried to get rid of it, but to no avail. She groaned annoyed. She just wanted to go home! She turned this thing on the outside of her calf, so she could at least walk properly.  
She wanted to leave when she suddenly heard a deep rumble. They had little opportunity to turn around! Suddenly she was run over by a huge dumpster on wheels. Of course she got a shock, especially because these things were not moving on their own normally. The thing pushed further and further against her, she backed off against a wall, but this thing was following her and began to squash her! She had no idea how she managed it to squirm out there, but somehow she skillfully ducked and ran away - when she stumbled over the garbage lid again, which still clung at her leg. Slowly, she became angry. What the hell was going on here?  
She ripped the lid off her leg and was going to throw it away, but it was magically glued to her hand. Puzzled, and somehow amazed she looked at this strange phenomenon how this metal object was hanging on her hand. But she had no time to admire it, because the dumpster had changed its direction towards her again and was accelerating. When she heard the low growl again, she didn't even take the time to turn around - she just ran off! Despite the cold, she began sweating from the effort. The garbage lid on her hand disturbed her, and fortunately, she managed somehow to throw it away.  
While she ran, she felt a strange resistance, as if she was running against a flow of water, in other places she seemed be torn forward. She didn't know what it was all about. She just wanted to go home. The air burned in her lungs, she was exhausted and in pain. And behind her she heard a weird rumbling, creaking and clanking of metal objects.  
As she ran around a corner, she risked a glance backwards. She realized with horror, how all the street lights on her way bowed down in her direction! She looked up and saw in the moonlight how the street lights seemed to follow her. They bent down, with squealing pipes and creaked as if they would break at any moment.  
In the dark, she could hardly orient herself in the city, everything seemed to look the same. But then, finally, she discovered the high-rise, where she lived on the top floor in a penthouse.  
She arrived on the rear side of the building, and because she was so exhausted and scared, she didn't bother to walk around the building to get to the front entrance, but she took the back entrance.  
Meanwhile, the metallic clang and roar grew louder behind her as if it would approach. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the glimmer of many metal objects in the pale moonlight that followed her rattling and squeaking on the floor! And they became faster, the closer they got!

Luckily the back door, a heavy metal door for suppliers and the cleaning staff, was unlocked. She opened the door, and slammed the door behind her, but Liz got glued with her hands on the inside of the metal door. Well, at least she was now inside. Here it was warmer. She didn't care at the moment, that she was glued at the door. She was completely out of breath, exhausted, so she slumped against the cold metal. She pretty much didn't care, that the clanking grew louder outside, after all she was safe now.  
Well, there she had, however, rejoiced too soon ... Suddenly the door was forcibly hit by an object from the outside, so that there was a huge dent. Startled, Liz pulled her head back. This was without a doubt the garbage lid!  
And suddenly more items clashed against the door so that it almost broke off its hinges. Liz ducked away to escape the big bumps, but since she was glued to the door, she couldn't get far away. She was almost knocked out.  
From the outside you could see, that the garbage lid, some hubcaps, trash cans, dumpsters, some smaller metal objects and a car were seemingly glued to the door and pushed against it, as if they wanted to reach Liz.  
Liz tried to push away, but she couldn't get loose from the door. When she tried to push off, the door followed her and also the items that were outside the door! The door was the only shield that protected her from being crushed between all those metal objects and the wall.  
And after a while, when the door creaked and was about to break, Liz felt this amazing clarity again. This unique feeling to perceive everything crystal clear. She felt the weight of the objects, the consistency of the door and decided to stop this. Then she suddenly felt a lightness that bordered on weightlessness. Shortly after she opened her eyes again, she heard a loud crash outside... From the outside you could see, how suddenly all items backed off from the door, flew away in a high arc and crash somewhere in the neighborhood, destroying windows and other objects on impact. Liz then broke up easily from the door, and groped into the foyer of the building. Again, it was dark.

"Hello?" asked an anxious voice.

"Who's there?" Liz asked a little scared. It was the first voice she heard after her little "mishap". Somehow it seemed unreal in this darkness.

"Miss Beckett?" The voice said again.

"Yes, it's me. Mr. Klein?" Liz asked, who believed to recognize the voice.

"You come back very late." The voice said paternally, "It must be three o'clock by now... "

"What happened?" Liz asked, though she wasn't intrested to know actually. She just wanted to crawl up in her apartment and in her bed.

"There is a power blackout probably," said Mr. Klein, the security guard, doubtfully, as if he was not quite sure himself. After all, there had been not a single power outage for decades. It was almost impossible that the magnetic power plants turned out.

"Unfortunately you have to take the stairs, Miss, if you want to your appartment," he added sympathetically, and pointed the pocketlamp at the door to the stairwell, "I'm very sorry. But the elevators do not work, just as the lights and the phones..."

"No problem," said Liz sporadically and began to make her way in the dark towards the stairwell.

The guard whished her a good night and Liz went up. She struggled up the stairs, where she got "glued" on the railing or on the steps pretty often. The staircase seemed to squeak and deform only because of her presence. It was a long and hard way to the penthouse, but she had no real sense of time more anyway, it all seemed to her like one crazy dream. Through the glass facade, the pale moonlight fell into the stairwell, while she struggled. Finally she made it.  
When she arrived on the top floor, her robot-butler opened the door.

"Miss Beckett, I'm so glad you're back! I wanted to call the police, but the phones don't work," said the robot, a machine with a large round head, and moving on one single wheel. Liz shuffled clumsily past him, without replying.

"Where have you b-b-b-b-been? I was wo-wo-wo-worried that - da-da-damaged da-da-da-da-data matrix!", the robot suddenly sluttered. Liz stopped and turned to face him. Suddenly, the robot-butler's head started spinning around its own axis, sparks flashed, then he collapsed on the floor as if he had fainted. Liz was no longer able to wonder about it. She shuffled on, directly towards her room. She didn't realize how all metal objects followed her movement, a metal vase fell from a shelf, picture frames lifted from the walls and stood in the air, pointing at her. Finally, she arrived in her room. Liz fell into her bed and remained there motionless, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep without undressing or covering with her blanket.

* * *

Okay, in case you wonder: Power Black out: yes, but extern Machines, like cars, clocks, pocket lights or robots still work... but since it's like 4 o'clock in the morning, Liz just didn't see any Cars in the sky.

I also realized a little mistake in ch. 3... but since it's the future, it's not an mistake at all. IN THE FUTURE BANKS ARE OPENED 24/7! XD


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Liz woke up with a slight headache. She was lying prone on her bed, still in her dirty, bloodstained clothes. The sun was already high in the sky warmed her back. What time was it anyway? Had she slumbered away the whole Sunday? The door to her room was open, she heard voices from outside. The TV had to be running.  
Whacked, Liz got up and found that her muscles were all tensed. Every movement was painful. She also had a strange, very penetrating metallic taste in her mouth, as if she had sucked her house keys all night, so that she felt the need to brush her teeth before eating. She shuffled into the bathroom wearily and paid no attention to the breathtaking view from one of the tallest buildings in the city. The air on this cold autumn day was clear, you could easily see the horizon in the distance. Buildings and vehicles of various kinds were shining in the sunlight.  
While she brushed her teeth, the memories of the previous evening returned slowly. She paused – did this really happen? In retrospect, it seemed like one terrible nightmare. A huge police operation outside the Eden Palace? Criminals, who kidnapped her? A fatal crash into a supermagnet and numerous metal objects that followed her? Just the fact that she had talked with Wilbur Robinson, was already enough material for a dream. Maybe it had all been a dream and none of this had happened for real.  
With the toothbrush in her mouth she looked down at herself. Her dress was absolutely filthy and torn and smelled like garbage and blood. In addition, it was covered with brown spots, which were remarkably similar to dried blood. This supported the assumption that the events of last night were indeed real.  
Only when she looked in the mirror again, she noticed it – in disbelief, she leaned closer to the mirror and touched her forehead at the place where she had been slammed into the railing...

Nothing, not even a bruise. But this guy had smashed her hard against the railing...! Then she examined her hands... and then her knees and the rest of her body  
Not a single scratch! Her hands and knees were completely intact! So it _was_ a dream, there had never been any criminals and the brown stains were no blood. But what happened then?  
Her own confused face returned her gaze when she looked into the mirror again. When she was done with brushing teeth, her stomach started growling suddenly. Since Liz had no idea what had actually happened yesterday, she didn't even try to remember when she had eaten the last time. But regarding how her stomach rumbled, it had to be an eternity ago.  
A little more awake, she marched through the arch-like hall, through the living room towards the kitchen. The living room was huge and bright, not surprising - after all the windows stretched from the floor almost 30 feet up to ceiling. Above it was a loft with the her parents' bedroom and their offices. A futuristic staircase whose steps were floating freely in the air, let up to the top floor. Liz never went up there, why should she? Her parents were never home anyway. Below this gallery were more large windows. They, however, didn't allow a view outside but down in another, very large room. In it was all kinds of sports equipment, such as balance beams, rings and a large trampoline. It was Liz's private training room. When she passed it on the way to the kitchen, she couldn't help thinking that she still had to train for the tournament on Wednesday.  
And her mother would come home soon, maybe today already... what would she say if she saw Liz's clothes? What should Liz tell her? Should she tell her mom, what she remembered? If it had even happened at all! Her mother would never believe this hair-raising story. Liz didn't even believe the story's herself...! But why were her clothes so shredded then?  
Her thoughts were distracted. The TV was indeed turned on. Apparently, there were news that reported what had happened yesterday before the cinema. Liz went into the center of the large living room and raised her head to look at the giant screen, which had the size of the entire wall. The news anchorman talked about the serious incidents in the bank. Liz frowned.  
A bank robbery? Somehow she had an uneasy feeling about that. But before there could form a certain thought, suddenly N.I.L.E.S. , short for Networked Intelligent Lifeform Engineered for Service, her RobButler, came from the kitchen. He was wearing a cooking apron, holding a bowl under his arm, which was apparently filled with dough. His other hand was formed into a mixer. He was preparing waffles for breakfast obviouly. This pleasant thought made Liz' stomach growl impatiently.

"Oh, miss Beckett! How nice to see you!" N.I.L.E.S. joyfully greeted her, "You were so sound asleep, I hadn't been able to wake you up. You almost seemed like unconscious. What did you do yesterday, Miss? You were hurt and completely scratched when you arrived here ..." he ended uncertain and examined her with his round googly eyes. Liz winced inwardly. So she actually had injuries when she arrived here - but how had they healed so quickly? The robot noticed her shabby clothes and also that she had not a single scratch anymore. Surprised, he put down the bowl and scratched his huge, round metal head.

"Well ... maybe it was just an illusion, excuse me, Miss" the robot said thoughtfully, took the bowl again and rolled back into the kitchen, "I had a malfunction yesterday night. I really regret this deeply, Miss. I already made a level 4 diagnosis of my program and my hardware, but without a proper result. When your mother arrives, I'll ask her to release me for a few days so that I can get a complete check-up. But we'll worry about that later. Now take a seat, breakfast will be ready in a few seconds." N.I.L.E.S. rattled without a pause.

Liz stopped short, are a little overwhelmed with the flood of information from the robot on one hand and from the television on the other hand. Suddenly N.I.L.E.S. approached again, pushed a a plate of hot waffles into her hands and pushed her on the huge, white leather couch. In no time he had an orange, a bowl, cereals, milk and two boiled eggs taken out of his belly compartment and draped all this on the futuristic, floating coffee table.

"I know how much you like watching TV while eating, Miss," explained the robot sympathetically, because Liz was still staring at him with big eyes, looking slightly confused. As the RoButler had finished speaking, Liz looked at the enormus television screen.

"Very disturbing." N.I.L.E.S. begain, pulling out a feather duster from his belly compartment, and began to dust the living room, "A few Supers have robbed a bank." He added, shaking his head.

"Supers ...?" Liz asked, puzzled. Her voice was still a little scratchy. She unconsciously stuffed a waffle into her mouth.

But before the N.I.L.E.S. could explain something, the anchorman began to explain the situation.

"The bandits vanished with the diamond without a trace. Although the building was surrounded from all sides, they managed to escape. It is still not entirely clear how this could happen. There are speculations about an escape tunnel, which were, however, not confirmed from police circles. It's also not confirmed, that the bank robbers were supers, though there is a lot of material, that shows clearly, that supers were involved into this crime. The police is asking for help from the public. If you made suspicious observations, please contact the police headquarters of Todayland. Now to other news. Last night at 3:14, the Robinson Inc magnetic power plants had a broke down. Todayland and large sections of the surrounding area were without energy until the early morning, when the supply could be restored. The reason for this power blackout are still unknown."

Liz stopped in the middle of the movement. She din't know why, but her mind suddenly put the different elements together. Only now she realized that the two gangsters were the bank robbers! That would explain how they could disappear without a trace from the bank, at least they had a portal! But ... it hadn't been supers, but just ordinary guys ...  
When she thought about what these guys had done to her, she became furious. They had tried to kill her! It was a mere coincidence that she hadn't died and was hardly hurt. She didn't know what had happened exactly, but she should be dead actually, after all she had fallen into a super magnet!

She suddenly felt a bestial rage, and hatred for the robbers, hatred for what happened, hatred against herself because she couldn't undo it, hartred even for Violet and Wilbur, who had left her alone – they were the reason why she got into this situation after all!

She was so angry that she was unaware of the things that happened around her – suddenly the TV began to flicker, metal objects started trembling. Only when N.I.L.E.S. stammered wildly behind her, she became aware of her environment again.

"There! A-a-a-another malfuntionssss" the robot stammered frantically. Apparently he had no control over his body anymore; his head swirled around in circles, sparks flashed and then he suddenly raced with full speed against a wall, where he collapsed with a crash. Screws flew across the room and a small, black cloud, with the smell of hydraulic fluid. Liz winced from this bang. But her anger wasn't gone yet. On the contrary - what was that stupid robot thinking, to have a malfunction right now?! She was annoyed and stalked towards the battered wreck when she saw, or rather felt how the picture framse turned to her, following her movement. The loose screws of the robot rolled across the floor right towards her.

Liz looked around at the large, brightly lit apartment, wondering about this strange phenomenon. Without fear, rather with a annoyed resignation she found that yesterday's return had been no hallucination or a dream, but true. She had really been chased through the streets of Todayland by two tons of metal debris.  
Then she suddenly a violent vibration filled her skull, like when she lay on the magnet. She put her hands to her temples to bring her head to a halt, but it was useless. There was no real vibration, at least she felt nothing with her hands. This hum in her head, became louder and louder, drowning out the noise of the television. Now the anger was gone, she only felt a good deal of uncertainty and anxiety. She pulled herself together and forced herself to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry. She took one hand off her head and stretched it out to catch herself, in case she stumbled, because she had the unpleasant feeling that she would lose balance at any moment. Then she staggered into the kitchen to get an aspirin. She didn't know if that would help, but currently she didn't have a better idea...  
It was a stupid idea, as it would turn out...  
She leaned on the counter, faltering. The roar in her head was so loud that she couldn't hear the impatient rattle of drawers and cupboard doors. Only when she felt the vibration of the counter, she raised her head and saw that the drawers and doors were trembling wildly. She was just about to be surprised, when suddenly all drawers and cabinet doors and shot open and forks, knives, spoons, pots, pans and a cleaver shot right towards her!

Of course, she was terribly frightened! Within a split second, however, this unspeakable shock turned into this amazing clarity. At the same moment the huge roar in her head was gone all of a sudden - only quietness and order filled her mind now. Liz had, for reasons she did not understand and that were not important to her at the moment, the absolute power. She could feel the speed of the kitchen bullets, their texture, their temperature, the magnetic orientation of the molecules within them - the time seemed to stand still for a moment. Liz reached out a hand and could feel all these items, although she wasn't touching. And when you could feel something, you could control it. And that's what she did.  
The crockery and cutlery then landed on the white marble tiles in front of her with a crash.

* * *

Wilbur and Vi sat in Wil's room on this nice Sunday afternoon, doing their homework together. They tried it at least. Neither of them had slept particularly well, the mood was still depressed because of last night's events. Vi was secretive and taciturn than ever. She seemed upset about something. Gloomily she switched the pages in her history book, while taking notes.  
Wilbur sighed. When Vi was angry, she usually let him feel that. Not that he would rather liked her shouting at him, but this silence was unbearable. Finally he forced himself to ask her what's going on.

"Something's wrong?"

Vi was so into thinking that she was a little startled when she heard Wilbur's voice. Surprised, she looked at him, until she understood the content of the question.

"It's stupid how we left Liz there all alone..." she said casually, and turned back to her homework. Vi was sure that Liz was pissed off at her. Vi had tried the entire day to call her, but Liz didn't answer her phone. Not even her robot N.I.L.E.S. had answered, probably because Liz had told him not to accept calls from Violet ...

Vi was angry because she couldn't explain the situation to Liz. If Liz had known that Vi had superpowers and that she had only left her because she had to stop a couple of bank robbers, Liz would surely understand... Violet bit her tongue. Was that really the only reason? Did she leave the cinema with Wilbur to serve law and order? Hadn't she been happy that she ruined the Liz' date?  
Vi felt miserable. And it made her angry that she felt this way at all. And if this wasn't enough, the bank robbers had escaped too! She had every reason to be in a bad mood, but she tried her best not to dissemble.

"We had no choice" Wilbur replied just as casually and also started writing again.

A while only the scratchy sound of the pens on the paper filled the room. Violet's thoughts raced. Liz was certainly suspecting something! She certainly believed Vi only wanted her to ruin her chance to hang out with Wilbur. But that wasn't the case! If she could only tell her that she had left to catch some robbers. That was the only reason! Or wasn't it? Or was it? What did Violet want with Wilbur as a boyfriend anyway?! He was her best friend. That didn't mean she was in love with him!  
She looked up carefully and watched Wilbur's face. He had his lips pursed, looking highly concentrated into the history book, while he tapped his chin with his pen. It looked incredibly stupid and Vi had to suppress a grin. But on the other hand, he was just so cute...!  
Vi gave herself a kick inside and tried to imagine that kissing him would be like kissing her brother. Without much success...  
She sighed droopily, trying not to blush heavily. Wilbur turned to her, wondering.

"I think I'mm bake a cake for Liz for school tomorrow, as a little exchange for yesterday ..." Vi said, to distract from her state of mind, without looking at him.

"Cake?" Wilbur asked, suddenly very attentive.

"Although, if you drive me to school, it's probably a bad idea to have a cake with me"

"But I love cake!" Wilbur protested. Vi smiled wearily.

"I whished you all problems could be solved with a cake!" she thought bitterly. Then she scowled again.

"I know exactly what cheers you up!" Wilbur suddenly began and patted her on the shoulder, "We're going to Earl's and eat some ice cream. After the fiasco yesterday we deserve that!" he continued, got up and patted his thighs. Vi couldn't resist a smile. Wilbur always found a reason to pay Earl a visit. Vi packed her things and together they went to the famous ice cream parlor. They talked about trivial stuff, about school and the story with Liz and Pete. Vi's mind, however, drifted off again and again. She didn't know how to say it or if it matteres at all. Then, just before they arrived at Earl's ice cream shop, Vi couldn't hold back this unpleasant thought, that made her feel deeply uneasy.

"There's one thing I'm worried about ..." she began and stopped. She didn't know exactly how Wilbur would respond, so she hesitated to say what she was thinking, "These guys had nothing to do with Cobra." she said instead.

"Yepp, that was pretty obvious." Wilbur replied, and shrugged.

"And this ... this machine that they had ... the portal generator" Vi continued hesitantly. Now came the unpleasant part. She looked at Wilbur, whose expression changed at once. He gave her an annoyed gaze. He knew what she was getting at, but he appearantly didn't want to hear it.

"The portal generator, one of my father's inventions, right!" he began, and was actually in a rage, "Do you think he has something to do with that?!"

Violet jerked, startled by this outburst. She hadn't thought that Wilbur would be _that_upset.

"No ..." she tried to calm him, but he just snorted, turned around and walked away. She ran after him and touched him gently on the shoulder, but he shrugged off. At least he stopped.

"Let me finish." she continued in a calm voice, "It is an invention that has never left the prototype stage. There is only this one prototype ... right? "

"Then someone must have built a second one, so what?!" Wilbur replied irritably, then he hesitated, "How do you know all this anyway?"

"I haven't slept a lot" Vi said in explanation. Wilbur looked at her questioningly.

"I spent the night doing some research" she went on and shrugged, "I mean, all the prototypes are stored in the main building of Robinson Industries, under the strictest security precautions?"

"Right..." Wilbur said annoyed, but before Violet could continue, he exclaimed, "What are you trying to say?! Do you seriously think someone of Robinson Industries would steal a prototype to rob a bank - "

"Cool it!" Violet interrupted strictly and grabbed his arm, "That's not what I wanted to say. I don't think these guys from yesterday work for your father."

"Good." Wilbur said satisfied, but he was still irritated.

"Yet they have this machine for some reason." Vi added dryly. Wilbur crossed his arms offended, but he remained silent.

"I concerned Wilbur ..." Violet continued with a lower voice, "What if there is someone who sells the plans for inventions, or the forgotten inventions of your father to criminals?"

Wilbur refused to look at her. He took a deep breath.

"That's merely speculations ..." he said softly.

"Yepp..."

"You have not the slightest hint or evidence ..." Wilbur continued, and relaxed a little and finally turned back to her.

"It's a pure, hypothetical thought experiment," Violet said and boldly lifted an eyebrow. They watched in silence for a while, while Wilbur thought. Everything matched. If it was true, if someone actually sold prototypes or plans to criminals, then they really had a problem. He lost the appetitt on the ice at the thought ...

"Well ..." he finally gave in, "I'll take a look at the storerooms in the main building ..."

* * *

It was already evening when Vi tried to call Liz again. She was convinced that the annoying answering machine would start babbling at any moment, so she was a bit surprised when Liz answered after the second ring already.

"Hey," said Violet surprised, "Everything all right?"

"Yapp, yapp," Liz said quickly. Vi didn't give her a chance to talk further. She just started reeling.

"I just wanted to apologize again for yesterday, but I was outside and wanted to see what's going on, and then the road was blocked off and then I couldn't get back, and then -"

"Vi, it's all right," Liz interrupted with a motherly tone, "I've heard the twenty messages that you left on my answering machine," She added, and Vi meant to identify a bit sarcasm in her voice.

"Oh, okay ..." Vi said, now a little soothed but at the same time somewhat embarrassed. Maybe it were not twenty messages, but certainly five or six Perhaps Vi overreacted because this entire Wilbur-problam made her feel she guilty...

"I'm still sorry that your evening was ruined. I didn't mean to -... "she apologized once more.

"All right," Liz interrupted casually, as if she wasn't listening properly. There was a brief pause, that made Vi feel extremely uncomfortable.

"I hope you haven't waited too long for us ..." Vi finally said to break the silence.

"No, no ..." Liz replied indifferently. She was very reticent. That was a _bad_sign. She had to be incredibly angry... or distracted ...

"Am I disturbing you right now?" asked Vi, to be sure.

"Uh, I, erm ..." Liz began, as if she had been caught red handed, "Well, I'm making... Physics ... homework ... we should hand that in tomorrow, shouldn't we?" she stammered. So Liz wasn't angry, but busy. Good. And suddenly Vi's thoughts were elsewhere. Physics! She had completely forgot about that!

"Thank you for reminding me!" Vi said and glanced at the clock. It was nine already, but when she worked fast, she could be done with the physics tasks at 12 o'clock.

"Well, then you still got something to do too," Liz said, with a tone that suggested that she was elsewhere with her mind.

"Okay, see you tomorrow!" Violet said goodbye.

"See you tomorrow," Liz said and hung up. Violet groaned annoyed. She had no desire to make even more homework now. It was already dark and she was tired. For an instant a strange thought occurred to her: it was rather unusual for Liz to do her homework last minute. Otherwise, she was always very conscientious about her homeworks and worked efficiently... But Vi had her own problems right now, so she pushed that thought aside and had forgotten it a few minutes later.

* * *

After she had said goodbye to Violet, Liz put down the phone and put it on the floor. In the other hand she was holding a spoon. She was still wearing the same clothes as the night before. For hours already she was sitting cross-legged on the marble kitchen floor, which was littered with cutlery and crockery, and experimented with her new ability. At a closer look you could see that all metal objects that were scattered on the ground – no matter if pans, spoons, sieves, forks, pots - were bent in completely insane forms.  
Well, the moment she had put the phone away, the spoon in her hand began to bend around and deformed - it looked like magic. Uri Geller was nothing against that.  
What ever had happened to her yesterday... it was cool!

References: The Nanny, Uri Geller and Star Trek (who ever finds the Star Trek ref gets a cookie!)


	8. Chapter 8

Next Day: Monday.

Liz woke up, before her alarm clock rang, even though she had experimented with her powers deep into the night. But she didn't feel tired at all. She was very excited and could hardly wait to tell Vi about her new ability. And what would Wilbur say? Liz could show them her spoon-deform-trick!  
However, the closer school came, the less enthusiasm she had. While she sat in the backseat of the black sedan car, driving to school, she was concerned and looked out the window, lost in thought. What would people think of her if they knew that Liz had a super power? They would surely ask her, how she got her powers - then she would have to explain what had happened. People certainly wouldn't be thrilled that Liz had caused that power blackout. In addition, she should have called the police, because she was a witness and was able to describe the criminals ...  
She bit her lip, thoughtfully. Then, when the sedan car landed in front of the school and her robot chauffeur opened the door, Liz made a decision. She would keep her powers secret for now. Perhaps this magnetic effect would disappear over time, so she'd better wait and see how things developed, and by then she would just live her normal life as usual.  
Well, even without her magnetic powers, her life was far from normal. During recess Liz went into the cafeteria, and even before she had queued up for getting lunch, she saw Pete sitting alone and sad at one of the tables in the back of the cafeteria. She gritted her teeth. Over the recent events she had totally forgotten to call him and apologize for her rude behavior on friday... Wow, what should she do now? If she would talk with him now, he perhaps would make a scene, right here, in front of the entire school. And the last thing Liz Beckett wanted in her life was drawing attantion. Therefore, she quickly looked away before Pete could see her and sat down with a couple of girls from her class.

Pete, however, noticed anyway how she was obviously ignoring him. He stood up and left the cafeteria, leaving his tray on the table. He put his hands into his pockets and drooped.  
Liz saw it from the corner of her eye. When he turned his back to her, she dared a glance. When he was gone, she sighed in relief, but she was still worried. She turned back to the conversation of the girls.

The four girls - Becky, Laura, Nyusha and Molly – were talking about fashion and the new trend to wear shoes as fancy hats.

"I still think it looks silly," said Becky, "It looks like you've mixed up your outfit! Seriously! A Shoe on your head?!"

"But everybody is doing it!" Laura intervened, "It's all the rage in Paris and Tokio!"

"Laura, if all people in Paris and Tokio would jump off a cliff..." Nyusha began, but didn't continue because she was giggling over Laura's offended expression. The others joined her laugh.

"I'm just saying..." Laura said sheepishly, "I think it looks different... you know what I mean? It's original"

"If everybody is wearing it, it's hardly original." Liz responded. The others (except for Laura) giggled.

"I just don't see the use of spending money for a single, extremely expensive shoe for my head, when i can have two for my feet for much less money." Molly joked.

"Your horizon is just too limited to understand this de-functioning." Laura began, and when she saw the confused (ans amused) looks of the other girls, she continued more seriously: "In De-funktionalism objects expand their meaning by trespassing their one limited function. This is very philosophical actually."

There was silence for a while. Then Becky bent below the table and when she came up again, she balanced one of her shoes on her head. It looked totally ridiculous!

"Now, i bet I'm looking like a totally smart philosph, right?"

The others, even Laura, started laughing. At this moment Liz discovered Wilbur Robinson and Violet, who were about to enter the cafeteria. And all of a sudden, her laughter died in her throat. Wilbur... how should she only provide to talk all normally and causually to him here at school? Outside school, it was something else, but here? Would she ever get a better chance than last saturday? Back then it had been so easy to talk to him! But now she only needed to see him from fay away and her heart already began pounding – suddenly, she became extremely nervous! Her mouth got dry and her hands began to sweat.  
She was so excited that she was unaware of the hum in her head. She first thought it was a load machine that flew above the school. Only when she began to feel the pressure of the metal in the building, she realized what was happening. The bench on which she sat was made of metal - Liz could feel how it deformed below her! She had to get out of here before all metal objects started flying towards her. The trays on the table were already trembling and rattling, and moved slowly towards Liz! Meanwhile the roar in her skull became louder, her heart raced. What should she do? The other girls looked at each other confused, then they watched in astonishement how the trays were moving – like it was magic.

"Is that an earthquake?" Nyusha whispered.

"Maybe... But I feel nothing at all ..." Becky replied uncertainly. The roar in Liz's head was so loud that she wasn't able to hear their voices. She had to get out of here! Fast!

Liz jumped up, not considering the fact, that the trays would follow her. The trays flew off the table, crashing loudly on the ground, food and drinks splashed everywhere. Also, when she jumped up, the metal bench was stuck to her butt before it crashed to the ground too. The other two girls who were sitting on the bench, complained obviously, but Liz could not hear them – all of a sudden all eyes in the cafeteria turned at her. Suddenly she was taking the center stage. This didn't make the situation any more comfortable for her. She was so nervous about her powers getting out of control infront of all these people - and especially in front of Wilbur – that she was barely able to speak.

"I ... gotta go!" she cried, and tried to speak quietly, what she didn't manage quite well. As soon the words had left her lips, she ran off, without further explanation. It was harder to get out than she thought, because the magnetism that emanated from her was affecting all metal objects in the area, so it felt like heavy weights were hanging on her. She didn't know exactly where she wanted to go, after all, how could you hide from magnetism?

As she ran through the side exit, she collided with a person. She wanted to run off, when she saw it was Wilbur. That was just what she needed last! ... She froze, her heart skipped a beat in fright before it sank into her boots.

"Hey Liz! Wanna eat with us?" Vi said kindly. Liz couldn't hear what she said, however. She just stared extremely stressed at Wilbur, who smiled at her charmingly. Liz panicked! How the hell should she get out of this situation without making a complete fool of herself?!

Suddenly all locker doors behind her jumped up! All persons around startled in shock. Paper flew through the korridor, and one boy got a door right into his face and was almost knocked out.

"What was that?!" Violet cried surprised, and it costed her quite an effort to not make herself invisible and activate her force field.

"Uhng!" Wilbur moaned annoyed, "Just another stupid joke of the Seniors!" he added contemptuously. Then he turned into the cafeteria and shouted "Lame!"

But the seniors had nothing to do with this incident. The doors were made of metal and moved according to the strongest magnetic impulse in their environment ... and that was Liz.

"Excuse me," Liz reeled, trying to speak softly, "I still gotta, ya know, do stuff... urgently..." she continued, backing off. She hoped no one noticed that the locker doors were moving with her. Wilbur and Vi looked after her in surprise.

"See ya!" Liz cried abruptly before Vi could say something. Then Liz turned around and ran off. A little further she ran around a corner, but she took the curve too tight. She touched one of the lockers with her upper arm - then it happened. Her entire body was attracted by the magnetic forces. Suddenly she stuck on the lockers, as if she was in a spider web. Her feet didn't touch the ground anymore. Now she was hanging there and had no idea what she should do.  
She was completely out of breath. Apparently she had totally lost control over her new ability. Fortunately, the corridor was empty, but it wouldn't take long until somebody came by and saw her in this state. She had to do something!

Liz had to regain this clarity with which she could easily control magnetism - but how? Previously this clarity had always kind of activated on its own, she couldn't control it. She closed her eyes and tried to somehow get to this clarity by meditation, but she was so stressed that she couldn't think straight.  
Then she suddenly heard steps - or rather, she felt magnetically that a metalobjekt was approaching. It was small – it must be a ring, a belt buckle or a wristwatch. She needed to get off this wall as quickly as possible before someone discovered her! This magnetic feeling came closer.

Well, that was it with her secret... Somebody would discover her, then the questioning would start, people would regard her as a freak, she would be excluded from society, perhaps she would even imprison her for scientific experiments – in this very moment, when she accepted the situation, instead of fighting against it, this clarity overcame her again!

Now everything was so simple. She was aware of all magnetically responsive materials in the building, for example, she knew that it was a ladies watch by Fabiani that would come around the corner at any moment. She had to get off this wall now, quickly! It occurred to her that she could manage this by inverting the magnetic polarity. That would repel her from the wall. And so she did...  
Unfortunately Liz still underestimated the power of her abilities. When she reversed the polarity, it didn't loose her gently from the lockers, as she thought, no, she was violently thrown away! She slammed painfully against the lockers on the opposite wall, bounced off and fell hard on the ground, where she remained lying motionlessly. The impact was so powerful that her head had left a visible dent in the locker. That was so totally not the way how she imagined having super powers would be...

At that exact moment Megumi Tategami walked around the corner and stooped short, perplexed, when she saw Liz lying on the floor in pain. A very confusing picture, because there was no indication what might have happened with the blonde, shy girl.

"Are you okay?" Meg asked confused. She didn't really want to deal with any trouble. She wore tomboy-ish clothes, as usual, and held a couple of music magazines in their hands, which she wanted to read in class. Around her wrist she wore a silver watch by Fabiani.

"Yepp, everything's alright! Just... hanging out!" Liz squeezed out of her compressed lungs, between her clenched teeth. It was more like a whisper, since she couldn't breathe properly.  
She did her best to stand up, to show that she was okay. Meg shrugged unmotivated. Then she passed Liz, but not without throwing a skeptical glance at her. Liz looked back with a smile. Megumi had hardly disappeared, Liz fell back to the ground. She could hardly breathe!

"This will be a lesson to me," Liz thought as she lay on the ground, holding her aching forehead. Next time, when Wilbur Robinson showed up somewhere, she would disappear as quickly as possible. At least until she had her powers under control.

* * *

Author's Note: Oh gosh, I don't know what happened! While thinking about, what the girls could be talking about, I randomly invented a completely new philosophical paradigma... which is complete bullshit! Don't believe what I'm saying!

References this time: Terry Gilliam's „Brazil" of course! ;-) Megumi Tategami is Vstriker's character! I love her, so I wanted to give her a little guest appearance. And she's wearing my watch :D


	9. Chapter 9

The next day, Liz avoided to run into Wilbur Robinson systematically. During the recess, she went to the school library and spent her time searching for relaxation strategies so she could quickly regain control over her magnetic powers in an emergency.  
Yoga, meditation, autogenic training, breathing exercises...

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, while she stared a little helplessly at the large number of search results. What Liz needed was a quick, effective solution. If she would get stuck to the lockers again, she would not have time for long minutes of breathing exercises or meditation.

"Hey," a familiar voice behind her said suddenly, "What are you doing?"

Liz jerked around a little frightened. It was Violet. She leaned on the table and looked puzzled Liz's research.

"Is this for the essay in biology class?" Vi asked skeptically.

"Uh ..." Liz started completely dumbfounded. Everything went so fast that she did not know how to react. She hadn't expected Violet to be here, let alone to have to justify for her research to increase control of her super powers. Because Liz was an honest person, usually, she really had difficulties to come up with a plausible lie. She looked helplessly back and forth between Violet and the screen, her mind raced to find an excuse.

"Yepp" was everything she finally said, "And what are you doing here?" She added promptly to change the subject, as she switched off the computer.

"Oh," Violet drawled, folding her arms and sat on the edge of the table, "I was looking for some material for the presentation in history class"

"And, did you find something?" Liz asked, and suddenly felt very tired. She had difficulty suppressing a yawn. In reply to her question Violet only pulled a book out of her bag and showed it to Liz. It had the title: Dawn of the Modern Age. Liz nodded to confirm and then rubbed her tired eyes.

"What's the matter?" Violet asked, curious. For Liz it sounded as if Vi was insinuating something. But that had to be Liz's imagination. Vi could impossibly know about her magnetic forces.  
Oh great, she couldn't tell Violet that she had spent half the night again to practice her new skills. Until today she had manipulated every single metal object at home. Then suddenly an unpleasant thought crossed her mind, that made her goose bumps.

"My mother comes home today..." she said breathlessly. It wasn't the answer to Vi's question - Liz had already forgotten about that - but a horrified realisation. That meant she would still have to enable all twisted metal objects back to their original condition!

"Oh dear," Violet began with a wink, "I would have nightmares too"

"Huh?" Liz asked. She hadn't heard what Vi had said. She had looked at the large clock in the library and figured out how much time still remained to restore everything, before her mother arrived. As Vi gave her a questioning and a little suspicious look (at least it seemed like that to Liz), she tried to pull herself together. She looked down at the floor as she spoke.

"Oh, um, I ... I just slept really bad ... I had to think about Pete the whole night... "she lied. She carefully lifted her eyes to see if Vi believed this lie. Apparently it worked. Vi looked down at her pityingly.

"Have you talked to him?"

"Not yet .." Liz admitted truthfully. She had completely forgotten about this problem! Oh great, one more thing she had to take care of. Her mood worsened, but as always, she did not show it.

"Well, I think" began Vi, while she gently put a hand on Liz' back, "Now would be the perfect opportunity." She added with a wink. Liz looked at her friend questioningly. Vi pointed with her eyes in a particular direction. Liz followed the gaze and saw Pete at a table on the other side of the library.

"Come on," Violet whispered encouraging and pushed her gently. Liz sighed, annoyed. She had no desire to deal with it now, after all, she had much more serious problems to care about. On the other hand ... if she would do it now, it would be over finally... But she didn't want to!  
She looked annoyed at Vi from the corner of her eye. Vi returned the glance with an encouraging smile.

"I'm right behind you," she whispered enthusiastically.

Liz sighed and drooped for a moment, unmotivated. Then she stood up and looked at Vi again. Vi grinned and crossed her fingers.  
Liz then turned around and walked right up to the brunette boy. Because she approached him from behind, Pete didn't see her coming.

"Hey ..." Liz started. Pete looked up surprised, but when he saw her, his expression changed, however. He looked moping. He looked down to his books again.

"Hey ..." he then replied with quite annoyed undertone.

Liz had to suppress an angry snort. That was silly. She had decided after all to apologize for her behavior. There was no need to play a huff now. She took a deep breath, to avoid to get too excited, otherwise she would have gotten the heavy metal bust of the founder of the city into her face, which stood not far away on a pedestal.

"I'm really sorry, Pete ..." she said softly, and she meant it.

"What exactly? That you dumped me, that you slammed the door in my face, that you ignored me or that you sweared at me?" Pete asked spitefully. And so it started again. Liz was so annoyed that she had to bite her tongue. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"... I'm sorry that I slammed the door and that I have insulted you. My behavior was not very mature and I want to apologize. I could have handled the situation differently ... "

"Damn right!" Pete said triumphantly, "You were condescending, nasty and arrogant, but I forgive you!" he continued. His expression had suddenly changed completely. His sadness was gone. He stood up and clapped his hands, as if he had finally solved this annoying problem.

"Now everything's good again! I'm no longer mad at you. We could do something together after school." Pete said joyfully, walked past the table towards her.

"Um, well, Pete, I don't know - ..."

"To be honest, I can understand your reaction. I cause this wild passion in women. And actually, it's even a good thing, after all this was our first real fight, but we got through it! Now nothing can stop us." he interrupted her, with a good part of arrogance. As he spoke, he hugged her and then put his arm around her shoulders.

Liz eyelid twitched. She thought it was only a joke, but when she saw his triumphantly, self-confident grin, she had to realize that he was serious!

At that moment, Liz Beckett should have left. She should have left, she should have turned around to just leave the library...

But why should she always be the one who backed down? She had super powers after all! She clenched her fists and looked at the metal bust again. She considered the idea to just attract it with her powers and to smash it against Pete's head.

No ... but she would give him a good piece of her mind.

"Um ..." Liz began uncertainly, "You DO realize that I've dumped you ... don't you?" she asked, and tried to squirm away from under his arm. The tough was really unpleasant.

"Oh, come on, baby! I know that you're not serious!" he said with a casual laugh, as it was merely a harmless joke. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.  
That was too much. He did it again! He just didn't take her serious at all! And immediately she felt this vibrating hum in her head again.

"Let me go!" Liz exclaimed angrily and slapped his arm away. Before Pete could say something about it, Liz began to infernally screaming through the library, yelling at Pete in front of about twenty people, "STOP calling me 'baby', you sappy, insensitive, annoying wannabe! I broke up with you! It's over! Let me spell it for you: O-V-E-R! Got it?! We're not a couple more! And we will never be one again! Did you get it now?!"

Pete just looked at her in horror. At that moment, Liz actually looked a little scary. She was half a head taller than him, so she yelled at him from the top down, her face was flushed red and her curls were wildly disheveled around her head. She looked almost like a fury.

"Um, I -" Pete began, but the attempt to justify was nipped in the bud.

"Shut up!" Liz cried, "No discussion! I don't want to hear another word, or I'll freak out!"

"Even more?" Pete asked meekly.

"Aaargh! I can't bear it!" she cried and tore her wild curly hair. At that moment, she was interrupted by a crackling sound, which she heard just at the same moment when the vibration in her head stopped. The bust of the founder of the city simply broke, appearantly without a cause. From that short distraction, Liz anger was gone. She calmed down. It was like she woke up from a dream, and only now she realized that everybody was staring at her. A lot of confused, even frightened faces were among them. Violet also looked as if she had just seen a ghost. For Liz the situation suddenly became really embarrassing and uncomfortable.

"Well, good that we clarified this." She said dryly, as she straightened her clothes and arranged her hair.

"Yepp, that was pretty clear... I think everyone here has understood." Pete replied softly, with a cynical undertone that was clearly meant as criticism. Normally, Liz would have felt sorry for her shouting... but she didn't feel remorse ...

What had become of her?

"So far about handling this peacefully..." she thought ashamed.

"Okay, see ya" She said and left the library, forcing herself to not running too fast.  
Once she was out, she heard wild murmurs and whispers behind her. She rolled her eyes.

Oh great, that would be the big story for the next two weeks... since she loved to be the center of attention. She was so annoyed that she did not notice that someone was approaching from behind. Only when Violet tapped her on the shoulder, turned Liz around. When she saw her best friend, Liz slapped her hands over her face.

"What have I just done!" she squeaked.

"Well, that... was ..." began Violet, who was obviously kind of speechless.

"Mean, disgusting, repulsive, degrading - I have to go back and apologize," Liz cried piteously, tearing her blond hair. For a moment she fell back into her old patterns of behavior.

"Fantastic!" Violet cried at once. Liz frowned.

"What ...?" she asked in surprise.

"That was great! Finally you spoke up your mind! That was first class! This is exactly the self-confidence I was talking about!" Vi shouted enthusiastically - for a second though Vi seemed a little doubtful, but maybe Liz just imagining that.

"I must admit, Pete has even deserved that a little. If that's the only way he understands, it's his own fault. Now don't look at me like that! That was great -... a little too loud maybe, but still great. I'll give you a B-plus! "

"Violet ..." Liz began incredulously, then grabbed her best friend by the shoulders, "You're my friend! You should stop me from such things, or at least say that I made a mistake! Why didn't you stop me?!"

"Why? Finally you start to speak up for yourself! I'm the last one who will keep you from that... "

"I always talk for myself .." Liz replied meekly.

"Yes, IF you ever talk!" Violet said, and gave Liz jesting poke in the side. Liz was not amused and gave Violet a disgruntled look. Vi returned the look with a provoking smile.

"See? That's exactly what I mean! Usually you had never dared to look at me like this – or at somebody else for that matter" Vi said, but you could hear, however, that she wasn't quite serious.

"Also, I didn't intervene, because I actually was afraid you'd bite off my head," she added a little theatrical. Now Liz had to smile.

"So, you mean I should not apologize to him... again," she stated doubtfully, after a pause.

"Oh, nonsense. I saw how he behaved ... well, you have disgraced him to the bone in front of hundreds of people, but he clearly provoked it... "

"So ... embarrassing" Liz muttered, who only now became aware of the consequences of her behavior.

"Oh, come on," Vi said encouraging, "If you ask me, it's the best thing that happened to you!"  
Liz actually got a fright, her mouth was completely dry, and her hands began to sweat. Vi couldn't know about what happened in the magnetic power plant! That was impossible!

"What do you mean?" Liz asked the dark-haired girl next to her breathlessly.

"Well ..." began Vi drawlingly, since for her the matter she was talking about seemed pretty obvious, "The thing with Pete. You're a lot more confident since then."

"Right..." Liz started, thinking about it, "Maybe ..."

The bell rang. The two girls walked back to their classes.

* * *

Back in the penthouse.  
Liz had spent two hours trying to free all the metal objects from all bumps and deformations - with varying degrees of success ... hopefully her mother wouldn't notice. And if her mother noticed something, Liz would blame it on the broken robot ...

"Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy" Liz scolded herself, "Lying seems to be your new hobby lately."

She was in such a hurry that she was in a sweat. She was just about to turn the last spoon back into its original form with her magnetic power, when she heard the front door. Her heart made a startled jump! She threw the spoon in the drawer and slammed it shut. She listened attentively for a few seconds to make sure she was not mistaken. But, clearly, she heard her mother put the key in the turquoise bowl, that stood on the dresser next to the door. Liz straightened her hair, and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Then she put on her "nice-daughter-face" and hoped her mother wouldn't be suspicious.

She found her mother in the hallway. The small, accurately dressed woman, named Rachel, seemed disoriented, she was wearing her fur coat over her arm and looked around, as if she didn't know where to put it, though the hat stand was directly beside her. She was used that the robot did these kind of things.

"Where is NILES," was the first thing she asked her daughter, instead of cheerfully greating her, after all it was the first time she saw her daughter since two weeks. But Liz was prepared for that question.

"He's broken," she explained while she took off her mother's fur coat and hung it over the hat stand.

"Broken?" Rachel asked horrified. How could it be that one of her luxury goods could be possibly defect?

"He had a malfunction and smashed hard against the wall. See?" Liz said as they entered the living room. The robot still lay with total damage at the same place on the ground since Sunday.

"Why didn't you call the repair service?" Her mother bleated.

"It was late last night and I forgot this morning before school..." Liz justified. Rachel kept a close eye on her. Liz swallowed. Did her mother see that she was lying?

"Honey," Rachel began with a motherly tone, without looking at her, however. She rummaged in her purse as she spoke, "When will you finally learn that you will never be somebody in this world, as long as you push your problems aside, rather than solving them," she criticized. Liz couldn't even tell you how many times she had heard this already.

"Sorry ..." Liz muttered sheepishly.

"Well, then I'ss fix it" said Rachel expertly. She took the phone and called the repair service. Thus she was busy for a few minutes. Liz, meanwhile, remained standing in the center of the living room, feeling a little insecure. Each time her parents were there, Liz felt like a foreign particle in the apartment, like it wasn't her home, but like she was just a part of the inventory from which you did not know where you should place it exactly ...  
After a seemingly eternity Rachel finally put down the phone and turned back to her daughter.

"So! I hope that you were not so careless with your training" said her mother critically. Liz swallowed hard, hoping that her mother did not see the cold sweat of fear, which began to form on her forehead. Liz had totally forgotten about the training the last days. And tomorrow was the tournament!

"Of course not, Mom ..." she lied.

"Very good," Rachel said satisfied, clapping her hands, so the many rings clacked against each other, then she was rummaging in her her purse again, "I came the entire way to make sure that you give your best. With less I won't be satisfied." She continued as she took out her lipstick from her purse. Liz thought that it almost sounded like a threat for some reason.

Rachel moved her back to Liz, while she looked into a small pocket mirror, putting on some lipstick.

"Well ... since the robot is busted, we'll have to order something over the room service - but no carbohydrates for you before the tournament. A salad will be enough." Rachel said, as she was done with caring for her appearance and picked up the phone to call the room service.

Meanwhile Liz was lost in thought. And she made a decision.

She had a problem. I big one, she admitted. What had happened to her back in the power plant was not normal - she might be seriously hurt without realising it. Maybe her brain had been damaged, hence her weird behaviour lately... First the thing in the power plant, then on the road, in the kitchen and the thing Pete... that was all very worrying. She couldn't participate in a competition in this state. She needed help. And who could she trust more than their parents ... her mother? But how should Liz tell her about?  
Liz took a deep breath. She would do, what she had done all her life: she would tell the truth. She didn't know, however, where to begin.

"Mama ... because of the competition..." she murmured uncertainly.

"God, speak up, kid! Nobody understands you!" said Rachel, while she got up and positioned herself in front of a mirror in the hallway. There she began to take off her earrings and her hair band. Liz followed her, playing around with her fingers uncertainly.

"You're gonna be qualified for the national finals! I'm so excited!" Rachel exulted.  
That didn't make it easier for Liz.

"Well..." Liz continued hesitantly, "You know, I need to talk to you ..."

"Why? Don't you feel well?" Rachel asked immediately, incredulous, and drew an eyebrow skeptically. For some reason it bugged Liz that her mother reacted so irritable. Wasn't a mother supposed to listen and to care when her daughter wanted to have a serious talk?

"I'm doing well, relatively ... Mom, on the weekend, something happened ... "

Now even Rachel realized the bitter seriousness in Liz's voice. She paused with arranging her hair and turned towards her daughter. Liz had to breathe for a moment, but Rachel did not have a lot of patience.

"What happened? Tell me! Don't make it so exciting!"

"So, I was at the movies -" Liz began, but she wouldn't get a chance to talk.

"Have you been there with a boy?" asked her mother as if this was a crime.

"Wha-" began Liz completely puzzled, "That has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, that has a lot to do with it, young lady! You know well that you're not allowed to go out with boys when we are not here! Boys just turn your head so you lose your sense for waht really matters! So, you were there with a boy?" Rachel grumbled.

"Yes, but that's not the point. After that - "

"That IS the point! Oh, wait until your father hears about that. You're in big trouble! We trusted you and you deceive is so shamelessly! What have I done wrong!" Rachel wailed as she came back into the living room and sat down on the couch melodramatically. Liz knew this performance to be sufficiently, so she was not impressed. Actually the fact that her mother still thought this number would work was quite surprising. And also the fact that she refused to listen to her. So Liz decided to make it very simple for her mom:

"Mom, I have a problem! When I wanted to go home from the cinema - "

"You have a problem indeed, young lady! Let's see what your father thinks about that!" Rachel said, as she picked up the phone to call Richard, Liz' father.

Liz tried to stay calm, by quickly going through all the facts: well, her mother had been on the road all day, she had not eaten anything, she was exhausted and when she comes home, she learns that her robot is broken. No wonder she's cranky. Maybe tonight was a bad time. Maybe Liz should try a different approach. Tomorrow morning, when her mother had slept and had breakfast, Liz would talk to her. On the other hand, Liz wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

"Mom, I don't think I want to go to the tournament tomorrow." She said cautiously.

Rachel paused with dialing and gave Liz an aghast look. Then she suddenly stood up and walked through the room, waving her arms wildly.

"That is certainly this boy's fault, right?! What were you thinking?! Do you prefer to meet with your admirers, instead to make me proud? Your future is at stake!"

She was again excessively exaggeraing. Slowly Liz was annoyed.

"I don't plan to go out with any boys, Mom!" Liz exclaimed over the noise of her mother's shouts. Once she had finished, Rachel stopped and acted as if nothing had happened.

"That's just fine. So you go to the tournament?" she asked, but her tone made clear that there was only one right answer.

"No," Liz began, but before Rachel could start shouting again, Liz added loudly but calmly: "It would mean a lot if we would just spend a nice day together. We could look at the old photo albums, or we take a walk on the lakeside, or we - " was she again interrupted harshly.

"You gotta be kidding, right?!" Her mother said with a monotone voice. Liz was silent. She had wished for a more seinsitive reaction. She didn't quite know how to respond.

"Well -" she began with a hoarse voice.

"I totally didn't come all the way to waste my time with old photos or any lakes - there I couldn have stayed in the office," her mother said blankly, and a bit annoyed.

"But Mom, I gotta talk to you -" Liz started again. And again was interrupted by her mother.

"It's not good that you're alone so much, you seem effete."

Slowly Liz became furious. She pushed her lower lip forward, offended, and and folded her arms. When her mother wouldn't let her speak anyway, then she she wouldn't say anything at all. Rachel looked at her thoughtfully for a while, then started walking around Liz. For some reason it reminded Liz in a vulture, circling over a carcass.

"Nobody has ever won a contest by looking at their baby photos, my dear. You won't be anything in the world, if you don't provide effort. Effort! Do you understand? Hard work, sweat and tears. Only then you will succeed! Only then you will have a happy and fulfilling life."

Liz groaned inwardly. How often did she have to listen to this preach in her live already. She used to believe in it, but now she began to doubt whether the equation success = happiness was true. Her mother had a lot of success, but she neither seemed happy nor satisfied.

"You'll do your best." Her mother concluded emphatically.

"I always give my best," Liz said firmly.

"Good, sweety, then lets keep it that way." Rachel replied. For her, the conversation was over. She turned around and began to check mail from the last few days. Liz felt helpless. It felt like she was in deep water up to her neck. She was a free human beeing, with her own dreams and goals - could her mother take this away by just turning her back to her? What power had her mother aynway? Liz was able to control magnetism! Her mother couldn't beat that!

"I won't participate at this tournament!" Liz began abruptly. Her mother was startled. For a moment she looked at her daughter carefully, then she said sternly:

"Yes, you will!"

"You can't force me!" Liz said determined, and suddenly this humming in her head started again.

"Oh, I can't? Are you sure?" Rachel asked sarcastically, with a very sugary sweet voice that could make you scared. She stood up and smiled dagerously at Liz. "You will go to that contest. Or do you think your fancy life here is for nothing? No more money, no more penthouse apartment, no car, no robot bulters that will make your life as pleasant as possible... "

First Liz was puzzled, then she became livid! Her mother actually believed that Liz put so much emphasis on luxury? The buzzing in her head was deafening right now, she barely heard her own voice, when she cried:

"I give shit on this fucking money and the apartment!"  
Therefore she recieved a slap in the face. It wasn't the pain that surprised her, rather than the fact that Rachel hit her in the face at all. For some reason, Liz wasn't even angry, she only felt pity and compassion. At the same moment the hum disappeared and made way for the clarity. Suddenly nothing was impossible, everything was so easy, everything suddenly seemed meaningless.

"Never dare to speak with me in that tone!" her mother said quietly, but dangerously, "And now go to your room."

At that moment it clicked.

Liz didn'tt know what had changed, but she could clearly feel that at this very moment the situation had changed. Until today she had always done what ever her parents had dictated her to do, she had tried to be a good daughter -

"You are nothing without effort" ...

Defining a person solely on their effort was humiliating. Liz was more than just an athlete, more than just a doll you could show off with.  
Liz turned around, but she didn't go to her room. In her mind everything fit together now, like the pieces of a puzzle. Now she could see everything so clearly. Lost in thought she took an apple from the crystal fruit bowl and threw it playfully from one hand to the other.

"Now I finally understand how things work here ..." she began softly, "I'll do what you say and I get clothes, food, a place to sleep ... everything I need to survive. Assuming I provide effort."

"Is that so hard to understand?" Rachel said, who stood there with folded arms and kept a close eye on her daughter.

"You do not contradict me, then?" Liz asked diplomatically.

"Why should I?" Rachel asked impatiently. Her gaze darkened.

"It's simple: Do you know what this is called? Slavery." Liz had stopped and returned the gaze just as dark.

"Didn't I tell you to go to your room?"

"Or else what? Won't you allow me to go to the tournament then? That would be a shame, I wanted to go there so badly!..." Liz said sarcastically. Her voice was different than usual, dissolved, free, and was filled with a powerful silence, and her eyes - maybe her mother realized at that moment that she no longer had control over her, otherwise Liz could not explain her fearful glance.

"If I have to repeat myself-" her mother began, her voice quivering from anger (or fear?), and wide eyes.

"You don't have to..." Liz interrupted, "My ears work very well ..." she ended abruptly and threw the apple playfully towards her mother. Rachel was so surprised that she wasn't able to catch the apple in time. The fruit fell to the ground and rolled over the Carrara marble floor.

"You, on the other hand, should work on your reflexes. Good night." Liz said quietly. Then she turned and went to her room.

That evening Rachel phoned Liz's father Richard. The two rarely talked to each other, only if it couldn't be avoided. Liz could hear her mother up in the office above, how she talked about Liz abnormal behaviour, and with an upset tone Rachel put the blame on the ominous strange boy. Her parents also discussed to Liz send to New York, to a therapist, who would bring back "to normal".  
Liz startled when her phone rang suddenly.

* * *

Vi stood below the skyscraper and looked up as if she could see Liz from below. They wanted to meet with her. After the incident today, Liz might want to have to talk to someone. Vi had her cell phone at the ear, and waited.

"Hello?" her friend answered. Her voice sounded tired and surprised at the same time, as if she was surprised that someone would call her at all.

"Hey, it's me!" Vi greeted with chattering teeth. The wind had freshened and was blowing chilly and cold around her ears.

"Vi!" Liz exclaimed joyfully, almost relieved.

"Everything okay?" Vi asked anxiously.

"Well..." Liz said in that peculiar tone.

"Is your mom already there?"

"Yep... Vi ... Oh!" Liz cried suddenly, and it sounded very desperate, "We had a fight, because of the tournament tomorrow ... What's wrong with me?"

"Everything is fine with you..." Vi said reassuringly, not knowing what had happened. Liz had never quarreled with anyone - well, that one time today with Pete, but this was hardly a fight. Vi could also understand very well that Liz had to freak out about her parents at some point. On the other hand, these incidents accumulated in dubious frequency. Maybe something was really wrong with Liz ... but at the moment Vi was just trying to calm her best friend.

"Calm down. Sleep over it one night and tomorrow the whole thing looks different."

"Yeah..." Liz sighed in disbelief, then she suddenly asked hopefully, "You'll be there, right?"  
It was so sudden that Violet did not know at first what Liz was asking for.

"Um ..."

"For the tournament ..." Liz helped her.

"Of course," said Vi, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. She tried to cheer Liz up after all, "Wilbur we'll be there too!"  
Why did she have to say that now?! Vi narrowed her eyes, bit her tongue and slapped her hand against her forehead. She was glad that Liz could not see that.

Liz' voice, however, suddenly changed it's tone. Had she sounded insecure and desperate before, she now sounded softly, almost a bit dreamy.

"Cool ..." was all that Liz whispered into the phone reciever. Violet would have liked to smash the phone against a wall. She bared her teeth and gestured wildly with her hands, to compensate that she could not scream as long as Liz was on the phone.

Vi was really bad mood suddenly. That was stupid! She was mad at Liz, who had a love interest in her best friend, at the same time Vi was mad at herself because she was against it, and she was mad at Wilbur because he was totally clueless about all this! It was just so crazy. When she had calmed down, a cold shiver ran down her spine. Her teeth were shattering.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked.

"It gets pretty cold outside," Vi said through her chattering teeth.

"Where are you?"

"I'm standing right below your window..." Vi admitted, "I wanted to ask you if I could come up, but when your mother is there..." though she didn't finish the sentence, Liz still understood what she meant.

"It's not a good idea to pay me a visit right now, that's true. My mom will only hold a lecture, what a bad influence you are and blah blah blah," Liz added, and Vi thought to hear that Liz was smiling. She sounded much more relaxed now.  
Still... these words caused a stab in Vi's heart ... she really was a bad influence, wasn't she? She was dishonest, they had not even decided whether to boycott Wil x Liz or to support it. she was a traitor. Vi startled out of her thoughts, when Liz suddenly screamed.

"Mama!"

"You've got a phone ban!" Vi heard the Rachel's distant vioce through the phone, "Now you've in big trouble!"

"And you've probably never heard of knocking at doors?! Don't you have the slightest respect for my privacy?!" Liz roared.

"Privacy must be earned!"  
Then the contact was broken. One of the two must have hung up the reciever. Violet drew back and looked at her futuristic mobile phone in her hand, as it could provide her some sort of explanation. Then she swallowed uncomfortably and put the phone back into her bag. Now she was really cold.


	10. Chapter 10

The next day in Todayland's Athledome.  
Violet had dragged Wilbur here after school, although he hadn't been in the mood for it. But now he was quite fascinated by the athletes' amazing performances. Wilbur never thought it would be so interesting. After they had seen the gents at the rings and at the balance beam (from whose he should adopt a few tricks), especially the female gymnasts attracted his attention. Watchng sporty girls how they jumped and flew ninja-like through the air in skin-tight suits, was exactly his taste. Why hadn't Vi took him here before? If he had known what he was missing here, he would have surely came along earlier.

"You should have heard her voice ..." Vi said anxiously. Wilbur wasn't really listening though. He was a little distracted by the young ladies, who jumped around in skintight jerseys.

"Usually Liz always behaves like a dog, when it comes to her parents at her parents – she just follows every stupid command she recieves. She would never have dared to stand up to their parents." Violet continued undeterred, "And then the incident with Pete in the library... she really yelled at him... that's not Liz' nature. And I, gosh, I even praised her for this behaviour! But lately these incidents seem to pile up ... " Violet ended and gave Wilbur an expectant look. Only now she realized that he wasn't paying the slightest attention to her. She cleared her throat loudly. Wilbur blinked and turned his head to her, Vi looked at him aghast. She was worried and wanted to talk about her trouble, but he rather started at these half-naked girls that jumped around in bathing suits.

"Yes, absolutely!" Wilbur agreed with a grin, though Violet was sure that he did not even know what the matter was about. She rolled her eyes slightly annoyed.

"Hey, I've been listening the whole time!" Wilbur said defensively.

"Yeah, right," Violet said sarcastically, "What did I say then?"  
Ha, got ya! Violet thought. Wilbur hesitated for a moment, while he pondered.

"Well, maybe I didn't catch _every_word ..."

"See, I was right!" she said happily at first about this triumph - but then she remembered again that it actually was nothing to be happy about. She groaned and covered her face with her hand annoyed.

"First she dumps Pete and now this... you mean something is wrong with her...?" Wilbur asked, trying to sound serious, as if he would actually care. Vi noticed, however, that he used the quite unspecific _'this'_. So he did not know what she was talking about because he had not been listening!

"I don't know ..." Violet replied thoughtfully, "People change ... I'm just not sure if it is a positive or negative change."

"Life is change!, the stone said to the flower and flew away..." Wilbur said casually. Violet looked at him quizzically.

"Vi ..." he began calmly and confident as he put his arm around her shoulders. Violet shrugged at the touch.

"Liz is probably much more confused than you. This is called puberty. Hormones, fear of the future, sweats, mood swings, rebellion ... that's all completely normal. Liz will manage that, as we all do more or less. We can only sit back and watch, and hope for the best." He continued expertly.

"Yesterday, I've still praised her that she finally speaks up for herself..." Violet began contritely, "But slowly it gets scary."

Wilbur had stopped listening again. Violet rolled her eyes annoyed. She was not even jealous that he was so keen on other girls – that didn't bother her for some reason, but it bothered her that he was not listening to her. Then again her concerns came along.  
Liz ... when she already began to rebel against her parents, it would not be long until she would have the courage to talk confidently with Wilbur. Vi was deeply concerned. A confident, eloquent Liz could be dangerous for her. Vi had nothing to oppose. Previously Violet had always made friends with others easily thanks to her open nature - that was really ironic, because in the _past_(in the truest sense of word) Violet had been the shy one. But when Liz came out of her shell now, and when everybody saw what a bombshell wife she was, what could I do Vi yet? Liz had so many good qualities, and Vi? She was not even honest - she couldn't even admit to her best friends what was going on.

Vi's bitter thoughts were interrupted when the crowd applauded and Liz stepped onto the floor mat.  
She competed with the ribbon, her favorite apparatus for rhythmic gymastics. She positioned herself in a corner of the mat, and with a graceful nod she greeted the judges. Then the music began and the show began. It was an instrumental version of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers. Liz moved unbelievably fleet-footed and elegant, yet incredibly fast and accurate. Violet gasped every time when her unsecure, shy girlfriend turned into a professional athlete. She moved seemingly relaxed and confident on the mat, as if it was her natural habitat.

Liz completed her presentation by heart, almost subconsciously, because she had trained every single movement in their private gym so often. But this time everything was different. She could feel the metal in her environment. When she jumped, she clearly felt how she approached the steel girders of the ceiling. Out of a sudden inspiration, a subconscious impulse, she activated her powers and pulled herself up at the steel beams that supported the ceiling, like a puppeteer who pulls up a puppet on its strings- only that she was both the puppeteer and the puppet. She steered her movements with a clear feeling of a strange relaxed power that filled her with timelessness. She did not notice the crowd around her incredulously holding their breath, so high was her jump. But then she made a mistake. She hadn't trained to land on her feet from such a height - she opened her somersault too early and botched the landing - she tried to absorb it, but stumbled and fell to her knees. The crowd cried out in fright and disappointment.  
Liz immediately stood up again and looked around. Her gaze fell on the big scoreboard. The victory was lost. Four of her opponents had delivered an error-free show, so with this fall there was no way to win. And for her parents a victory was the only thing that counted. Liz, however, didn't really care.  
She turned around gracefully to the judges and bowed to show that she gave up and wouldn't finish the exercise. The crowd sighed in disappointment. Vi's jaw dropped in surprise. Then she dragged Wilbur after her down the tribune. She wanted to get to Liz - maybe she was hurt. At that moment, the next gymnast already entered floor mat with great applause.

Before Violet and Wilbur had reached the locker rooms of the athletes, they already heard Rachel Beckett's angry voice nagging around.

"You did this on purpose! You've let yourself drop, only because you're sullen and want to score off me! You didn't consider the consequences, did you?! Do you realize that you're not qualified for the national finals now? It's your own fault!" Rachel's voice could be heard outside on the corridor. Vi and Wilbur were standing outside. And they were not the only ones who listened curiously. Other people who were standing around the entrance of the locker rooms listened to the debate, after all it was hard to miss.

"I gave my best," Liz replied calmly. It was the silence of her voice, the hardness and cold that were angst-inducing.

"You're in a bad shape! That's why you didn't want to participate, right? Because you've ignored your training as always! You got lazy!" her mother snapped, "I bet this is this boy's fault! And you're way too fat aswell! I bet that comes from all this fast-food that you devour all day! I'll get you a diet-coach who will eliminate this problem. And as of today no more secret meetings with boys, is that clear?! Instead you'll be training hard, every day! Maybe when can still qualify you for the final at the tournament next month."

Vi suddenly heard a metallic squeal, but before she could identify the source, she was distracted by the heavy metal door of the locker room, which started rattling without any obvious reason.

"This failure will have consequences for you, young lady!" she heard Rachel's menacing voice.

"Oh, yeah?! Such as what?" suddenly Liz' voice roared through the hallway, so that both Vi and Wilbur jerked. Liz seemed to have lost control, "Do you want to lock me up in a tower all alone? What exactly would change for me then, huh?!"

Vi had hardly recovered from the shock when Liz suddenly came running out of the locker room. She still wore nothing but her jersey and was barefoot, but she ran out into the street anyway.  
Vi followed her immediately. Wilbur stood around a little confused, after all, he had nothing to do with it, but then he decided to follow the girls outside.  
When he got outside, Violet was about to reassure Liz, who was hyperventilating a little (very much). Her head was bright red from anger, so that Wilbur briefly considered whether it might be safer to go back inside.  
When Liz saw him, she seemed to feel ashamed. She had to be cold, after it had been freezing this morning. She crossed her arms in front of chest and stared at her bare feet.

"I fear my shoes won't fit you, but I can help yopu out with that" he heard himself say, then he threw his jacket towards Liz. She could use it better than him right now, after all, she was hardly wearing something. Liz caught it, and while she thanked him, she put on the jacket.

"I could use a pair of trousers too," she then said challenging. Violet's ears almost fell off. Her eyes widened in shocked when Wilbur suddenly began to open his belt. Suddenly Liz started laughing beside her.

"Look at her face, she thinks you're serious!" she giggled and gave Violet a slight nudge. Wilbur also chuckled as he closed his belt again.

"I didn't think that" Violet muttered sheepishly, trying to not show her relief. She felt pretty stupid.

"You were totally shocked!" Liz was laughing. Vi was a little irritated, but tried to dissemble with a half-hearted smile. What was going on here? Liz had just been completely hysterical, and now she was already making jokes at Vi's expense...  
When she had calmed down, Liz again crossed her arms in front of the body, her teeth were chattering. After all, it was quite cold and she was barefoot and wore nothing more than her swimsuit-like jersey and Wilbur's denim jacket.  
Liz looked incredibly cute with the jacket, the strict bun of hair and the colorful make-up in the soft, golden light of this autumn afternoon - God! Violet really hated her at that moment!

"I'll better go back in, otherwise I'll have to walk the way home in this outfit." Liz said, "Thank you for coming. I would have liked to give you a better show, but ... well. "

"Don't worry, it was cool. And the best performance was in the locker room anyway." Wilbur said jokingly. Liz gave him a sweet smile. Vi gritted her teeth.

"Great that you were there," she said, then gave Wilbur back his jacket and waved goodbye, while she went slowly back into the Athledome.

"You sure you get along now?" Vi asked hesitantly. She was just being polite, actually she really wanted to get away from here as fast as possible.

"Oh, sure! That's just my mother and no fire-breathing dragon!" Liz joked, then she disappeared through the door.

On the way back home Wilbur and Violet walked together. Vi was strangely silent and looked gloomily. She did that quite often lately. Wilbur slowly started to worry about her.

"Why do you look so grim?" he asked jokingly, trying to sound as casually as possible. When he had asked her the same question the last few days, she always responded quite irritated, so this time he tried to formulate as if he didn't really care.

"Oh ... I was thinling about this bank robbery again" Violet murmured. It was a lie, she had not wasted one thought about the bank robbery today, because she was constantly thinking about Liz and Wilbur.

"Don't worry," Wilbur began, "I'll look around the main building tomorrow. Maybe I can find out something."

* * *

Liz had actually got grounded.

Her mother was just two floors below at a luxury spa treatment in order to recover from Liz' Verhalten.  
But even if her mother wasn't there right now to make sure she wouldn't leave, Liz couldn't go anyway, because the guards knew about it as did the new robots, who would alarm her mother in case she left the apartment.  
Now, thanks to her special abilities, the new robot was not a problem. She had knocked him out within a few seconds. But the guards would not let her pass. And she didn't want to eventually hurt anybody. Anyway ... why would she go outat all? There was no reason, except that she simply didn't want to do, what her mother demanded of her. It was mere defiance.  
Liz was sitting on the couch with your crossed legs. It was dark in the penthouse, only the lights of the city sparkled like a sea of golden coloured blur.

She sighed. The longer she sat here, the more this appartement seemed like a a prison - lika a golden cage.  
But she wouldn't let herself get imprisoned any longer! This time was over.

Determined, inspired by a strange energy, she jumped up and went to her room. You tore all her clothes out of the closet and reassembled a red-black dress from various sport jerseys a red and improvised from a mask a resilient black cloth by cutting two holes in it for her eyes. After all, she didn't want anybody to recognize her, when she escaped her prison tonight.  
She would not abide the rules, she would come and go like she wanted - which didn't mean that she had to let herself get caught.  
She sneaked out on the balcony. Liz was startled from the chilly cold at first, after all her outfit wasn't keeping her particularly warm. The wind was blowing strong up here and ruffled her hair. Then she stood on the railing.  
Her heart beat faster. Since the tournament today, she knew that she could take advantage of the metal components of buildings in order to regulate her own movements, when she would hold onto the concrete. Nevertheless, she felt an anxious excitement when she saw how deep it went down below her. She hesitated. What if she slipped and fell? She could just go back in and could serve her sentence. She looked back to the dark opening of the sliding door that led to her room.  
For some reason, this option seemed much less attractive than the risk of falling from the top of a skyscraper. What was awaiting her there? Nothing but rules, penalties, control, suppression ...  
She turned towards the city below her again. The bright lights promised freedom and adventure!  
Resolutely she finally climbed over the parapet.  
Meanwhile, she believed to control her powers quite well - at least she could turn them off and on without trouble. When she went over the railing, she directly activated this clarity that made her able to attract not only metal, but to control it too.  
Slowly, very carefully, she vertically slipped down the glass facade on her back. She didn't cut a fine figure there. She had instinctively tensed her arm, leg and abdominal muscles, in the illusion that it would stabilize her. When she passed about 30 meters this way, she was totally out of breath with exertion already. That's when she realized that it was so pointless. Her muscles were trembling from overstraining. Before she reached the bottom that way, she would be completely exhausted.  
Her muscles had nothing to do with the magnetic control, all that she needed for that was a clear mind. She took a deep breath. Then, very carefully, she pulled her hands from the building, then slowly her back, so she finally stood horizontally on both feet on the glass facade. It was a strange feeling, becasue her hair was still attracted from the earth's gravity, so that it was seeminly flying in a right angle in front of her face.  
And now: one step at a time.  
But when she wanted to take the first step, Liz already lost control! The act of walking was engrossing her minds so much, that she wasn't able to control her power any longer. She was apparently not capable of multitasking. However, she had no time to think about the reason.  
Currently, she was too distracted to fall into her certain death. Understandably, she panicked as she saw how the ground approached with a furious pace. Desperately, she tried to re-activate her magnetic forces. It worked quite well - she was attracted to the metal beams inside the building, with the result that she was painful smashed against the facade, but did not slow down! Only seconds were left until she would collide with the ground. She had to get control again, but how? Now she really had no time to do breathing exercises or meditation!  
Just before impact, the moment in which she got used to the fact to die, and a resigned calm started to fill her mind - then suddenly, just before impact, she felt that clarity again. She could control the magnetism in the pavement - she pushed off and slowly, gently like a feather she landed on the ground.  
She straightened up and only stood there for a while. Of course she was under shock. She turned around and looked up. From below, she couldn't even see her balcony. She had fallen pretty deep. She sighed in relief. Well, at least nothing had happened. And she had escaped, that was the main thing.

But promptly she remembered another problem! How was she supposed to get up there again? Half terrified, half-aghast she looked up once more. She could not enter through the normal entrances, without the guards noticing something ... then her parents would find out that she had left.

Then she had an idea. Was it possible that... she could jump? At the tournament, it had worked. Now that the clarity was there, she took the opportunity. She pushed herself away from the metal in the road surface easily, so that she was hoving above the road.

This way, she floated on a nearby low roof and landed softly, because she repelled from the metal. That was really easy! She tried again. And again. So she floated from roof to roof, carried by her magnetic power.  
After a while she turned and looked back at the tower, where she lived and where her mother cluelessly took a mud bath or was cooked in a Jacuzzi. Liz was pretty far away from her home already. A strange feeling of relief and peace and an until now completely unknown feeling of freedom came over her! It was quiet that night, the city lights glowed softly around her and spread a warm atmosphere, even though it was pretty cool. She could do everything she wanted, all options were open to her! The cold autumn wind blew the blonde beauty's hair from her face, which no longer showed uncertainty but confidence.

The expression suddenly changed, however, when not far away a siren started howling. Undoubtedly an alarm system!  
She swallowed. At first she was scared because of the loud noise. What if her mother could hear it? Then she calmed down with the thought that the spa was closed off acoustically, so that no disturbing noises bugged the people and stressed them.

But when the police showed up here and saw her... a masked girl with magnetic forces ... if her parents would find out she would get into _big_ trouble! She could imagine her parents to send her into a boot camp or something like that!  
Instinctively, she moved away from the building., from where the alarm was heard, and walked a few steps on the roof in the direction of her house.

But then she stopped herself. What was she afraid of? What should happen? Oh, her parents could punish her, like grounding her for example. Well, she had just proven that this wasn't impressing her much! And when she could escape a giant skyscraper, she could escape a boot camp too!

She turned back to the alarm. Apparently the building was a bank. Liz pondered. Probably it were the same guys who had attacked her last time.

Why should she run away? She had no reason to be scared! After all, she had super powers! The police should see and arrest her, she didn't care! Sie almost hoped that the police would bring her home - her mother would not believe her eyes!  
After a while, however, still no one was there. Liz was getting impatient. Actually only two minutes had passed, for her it felt a lot longer though. No one seemed to respond to this alarm. What if the police came too late and the robbers would escape again -?

At that moment it hit her like a bolt of lightning! SHE was here! _She_could intervene! _She_ had the power to do something and she would do so! And at the thought to pay the villains back who had wanted to kill her, she became really combative. Without waiting or reconsider the matter again, she jumped onto the roof of the building, where the alarm wailed.

Through an air shaft she sneaked into the building... On the way she was almost euphoric. If it really were the same bandits again, to whom she owed her awesome new power, she would put them with these forces behind bars - oh, what an irony!  
She followed this thought further, while she crawled through the dusty air shaft: she could be a superhero without the knowledge of her parents, and defend law and justice in secret! She stopped short – wasn't that a bit too clichéd ...? After all, it was due to bank robbers that she possessed these powers after all.  
The shaft ended at a grid to the foyer of the bank. From there, she could already see the open door of the safe room. With her magnetic force she pressed the grill from the wall and let it float gently to the ground, so it didn't make a sound.  
Then she pushed herself off the ground and magnetically floated slowly in the near of the safe room where she took cover behind a table. She carefully looked into the vault.  
It actually were the two gangsters from last time!  
Although she had already expected that, Liz got a shock anyway and would have liked to leave again, until she remembered that now she was the one with clear advantage.  
She quickly arranged her blonde hair (it was pretty disheveled by the wind), adjusted her mask, then she hovered silently in front of the vault and this way cut off the path of the bandits. She was so quiet that the two do not notice her. They had turned their backs to her and hissed, rushed.

"Why did the alarm trigger?!" asked the first. Liz recognized his voice. It was the one who had suggested ot let Liz run the last time.

"Because you idiot passed through the laser barrier! In a few minutes this place will be crowded from police and Supers!" snapped the second. Liz clenched her fists angrily when she heard this nasty voice. That was the one who had tried to kill her. The robbers picked up all their stolen goods, and were seemingly about to disappear.

"Hey guys!" Liz cried casually. The two jerked around in horror. All they saw was a dark silhouette that stood in the entrance of the vault room. Liz enjoyed the mortally frightened faces of the two guys, even though they were wearing ski masks, but she could see the fear in their eyes.

"Do you remember me?" she added charmingly. She had the element of surprise on her side - and magnetic forces for that matter. Now she would bring these guys behind bars! The robbers were frozen in shock.  
But that did not last long, unfortunately. The second of the two suddenly grinned maliciously and reached into his jacket.

"This time we're prepared!" he cried gleefully and quickly pulled out a gun. Without waiting, he fired at Liz.

She was thrown back violently, eight meters away she landed hard on the cold, polished marble floor and slid a few feet until she stopped.

Yepp, that she had imagined differently.  
When she had struggled on her feet again, all she saw wwas how the guys just disappeared through the portal ...  
She clenched her fists and stamping furiously on the floor. She was so angry at herself! She could have died. It was a stupid idea to play the heroine already, when she still had so little experiance to control her powers. She could have faught off this shot, after all, it had been an electromagnetic impulse, just like at charge ball. It caused a great power discharge, without leaving serious injuries. But she had't responded fast enough, it had caught her totally unprepared.

She stumped into the vault. These guys had left some of their haul; a few bundles of money and a pair of black, small boxes in which were often kept jewelry and diamonds.  
Liz had totally forgotten about the stupid portal. She should have known better! She should have knocked out this band of crooks immediately instead of giving them an opportunity to escape by making such a stupid performance. That was so stupid!  
She angrily kicked against one of the black boxes. The thing was no longer locked to her regret, the gansters had opened it obviously, because suddenly the ground was covered with diamonds.  
Liz sighed, her anger was gone. She was relieved, at least she was not hurt. Then she bent down and began to pick up the diamonds and put them into the box again. When she was done, she wanted to put the box back into the huge closet, when suddenly ...

"Look who we got here?"

Liz got a tremendous shock. She froze in mid-motion, then she turned her head slowly towards the entrance of the vault room. Just like she had done before, there now stood a guy in a black-and-blue suit with his hands akimbo. Because the light was illuminating him from behind, she couldn't recognize his face, but only a dark silhouette.  
Oh god, that was a real super! Liz thought surprised.  
That had to be one of those supers who were in cahoots with the gansters, how they had reported in the news. These supers were their accomplices ...!

She stared at him with her jaw dropped. When she realized that, she shook her head, then she realized what impression she probably made: she was a masked person in a bank vault, had a cash box with diamonds in her hands, and the alarm howled through the halls ...

"Oh ..." she began breathlessly, her mouth was completely dry, "erm... it's not like it looks!"

"Of course not, you wanted to see if everything's allright and then return it into the safe," the stranger said, charmingly.

"Exactly," Liz exclaimed, but realized too late that he had meant it sarcastically. Suddenly another super approached from behind – it was a young woman whose fists began to burn.

"Okay, we can solve this peacefully, or the hard way. But I advise you, it is better if you're not causing any trouble," the burning girl said, annoyed, and stormed into the vault. Since there was no way out, Liz was trapped. She reacted merely instinctively. She threw the cash box with full force against the attacker. Flame was flung back, since she hadn't reached her plasma shape yet. Otherwise, the heavy box would have flew right through her, but now she was hit right in the face. Liz ran to the entrance of the safe room where the boy was standing. He was ready to stop her from escaping. Within a second she made all the metal cash boxes levitate with her magnetic forces all cash boxes from the closet and hurled them at Wilbur. When she got outside, she shut the heavy safe door, that was weighing tons, with her magnetic power. Flame was caught inside and Wilbur was buried below about 80 boxes.  
When she was outside, she saw two female Supers in the bank, who also wore blue and black suits.  
Liz had to do something about this predatory super-villains, but she was hepless against four professional supers, because her forces were still not good enough.

But she had no opportunity to think about it. The two remaining Supers attacked her immediately. One suddenly became invisible (what made Liz stare in astonishment), the other one somehow made a table floating and threw it right in Liz' direction. But Liz was faster! She pulled herself up at the metal in the roof to the ceiling like she did on the tournament, on the ceiling she ran with her head down to the next window. The Invisible complained with a surprised "Hey," while the other onw, a young, blond girl also started to fly! Liz was had left through the window first and tried to close it, but suddenly the girl appeared with a flash behind her.  
Liz turned around, expecting a punch in the face - when they both were suddenly blinded by a bright light! Both girls looked up in surprise.  
After a second, they realized that they were trapped in the search light of a police helicopter!

"This is the police! Don't move!" Echoed a loudspeaker announcement through the air. Liz felt satisfaction! She had delayed the villains long enough for the police to arrive here.

"Ha ha! Now you all get behind bars!" she cried triumphantly to the small blonde's face. But instead of fear she saw confusion. Then suddenly the window behind her seemed to explode! She felt countless shards bounced against her back. She spun around and saw that the boy she had first seen, was now flying above her in the air (obviously with the help of rocket boots).

"The game is over! You'll get behind bars!" the boy cried, pointing heroically down at her. Liz was captivated by this monumental sight for a moment, his pose, the lighting, his handsome face ... all that seemed so unreal, like from a movie - ... Wait, what? SHE should get behind bars?  
Suddenly she was cold ... she froze when she realized how the real constellations were.

"You shouldn't believe everything you see on TV ..." she thought cynically. She was not the heroine here, but these four. How should she get out of this situation now?! They had come to the verge of panic at the thought that she could actually get arrested and could be accused of bank robbery. Without making a move, she tore out a metal door at the other end of the roof with her magnetic power and hurled it with a breakneck speed at the little blond girl behind behind her. The girl saw the seemingly fyling door too late, and so was fully hit and fell unconsciously from the roof. The boy raced after her immediately with his rocket boots to catch her.

"I said don't move!" Shouted a voice from the speakers of the helicopter. The metal door, however, flew off,, and met one of the engine pods of the helicopter. The massive aircraft began to spin, and flew in a spiral towards the ground, leaving a long, thick smoke trail behind it, driving against two houses on its way.  
There was chaos on the street. Policemen and onlookers ran apart to avoid being crushed by the crashing helicopter.  
Liz would use this chaos to disappear.  
She ran to the other end of the roof and jumped over the crowd on the next roof, but as soon as she had landed, she heard explosions around her. Shots hit the roof, she spun around. About 10 huge police robots flew towards her and fired incessantly. Liz wondered about the fact, that she felt no fear at all. With a simple movement, she brushed the attackers aside, after all, they were made of metal. The robots were smashed on the asphalt of the road. At the same moment there was an explosion behind the bank - this had to be the helicopter.  
Liz ran on, jumping from roof to roof and then landed on the maglev, which raced with reckless speed through the city. She stayed there briefly to recover her breath, she was exhausted. Only now, she turned around again. Helicopters circuited above the place where the bank had to be, and a thick cloud of smoke rose up, lit by bright lights, so that it looked almost like an living organism, an evil genie. Nobody was following her. A strange feeling came over her, when she watched the chaos looked, she had caused.  
She thought about all this. She had taken an unspeakable risk, she had acted foolishly, careless and reckless - and it was an immense elation that overwhelmed her on the roof of the maglev now, while the icy wind blew through her hair. She felt truly free, strong, independent and energized. It was fun! She had just taken up all alone with four Supers! When these professional supers couldn'tt stop her, then who could? This intense euphoria erupted with a silent snicker first, then with a loud shout.

"Wahoooooo" Liz screamed and stretched out her arms.

She felt miserable that she had really thought it would change anything to violate her parents' insignificant rules. Her parents were only a minor, small people and their rules were meaningless. No, Liz wanted more. Never again the well-behaved, obedient daughter, never again the shy, silent, understanding girl, never again helpless, sweet and nice!  
Liz didn't want to break a few rules, no, she would break _all_ the rules!


	11. Chapter 11

The next day. Evening.

Wilbur was on his way to the Parr's home. After the second bank robbery last night he had been in the storage facilities of Robinson Inc. today - at least he had tried to. As the son of the founder and conductor of Robinson Inc. Wilbur had no trouble getting into the high security departments.  
Howver, because of the current police investigation many areas were cordoned off for securing possible evidences and therefore were not accessible.  
That's all he was able to find out: nothing was missing. No one had tried to break in or to steal something.  
The police was in the dark ... just like our heroes. There was not the slightest hint. Somehow Wilbur was relieved and concerned at the same time. Since the police had found nothing in the whole company yet, it could be assumed that it was nobody from Robinson Inc. To blame. On the other hand, it had to be someone else, and this unknown stranger, who was still somewhere out there, made him uneasy.

The attack yesterday had been even more devastating than the last one. And now it was sure that there was in fact a super who worked together with these criminals. This ominous figure had caused quite a havoc, not to mention that she had disarmed the team within seconds without any problems and had caused a damage from totaling several million dollars.

Flame had was effected by this defeat the hardest again... Wilbur had inevitably think of her outburst, as he is now stood infront of the Parr's house, and hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he was tired of life and really wanted to take the risk of entering that house.

He then rang. Dash opened him, but was too busy to greet him. He had wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder and wwas holding a small notepad and a pen in his hands. He waved Wilbur with the pen to come inside, after that Dash he immediately continued to phone.

"Under no circumstances! No matter what this salesman says - you won't accept this carbiners! We still have the ones from last year - ... I don't care if they are better, those things are junk and don't sell!" Dash cried into the phone as he walked back into the kitchen. Wilbur followed him with his eyes while he walked toward the living room. He then discovered Sybille in the kitchen. She waved friendly and then pointed at the ceiling. This way she wanted to tell him that Violet was up, so he didn't need to go into the living room. He understood, thanked her with a nod, and then hurried up the stairs. But Vi's room was empty.

_We're in my room_, he heard a familiar voice in his head. He walked down the hallway and entered Emely's room. Vi and M sat there with serious expressions on the young girls pink bed.

_In the basement_. He heard M's voice again. It was the answer to a question that he had not asked aloud: "Where is Flame?"  
Flame never sweated, yet she also felt hot when doing sports - but way hotter than normal people. Therefore, the basement of the house was thermo-insulated, so that she could train without the tremendous heat turning the rest of the house in a fiery oven-sauna.

"She's been all day down there sulking" M said loudly.

"I can imagine," said Wilbur seriously, while he set down on the bad next to the girl.  
Not only that the robbers and the Super had escaped, no, Flame had also got a cash box right into her face and then was enclose into a vault. It had taken two hours before the police had finally freed her. Since they thought, however, that Flame was one of the criminals, the policemen wanted to spray her with fire fignting foam immediately and arrest her - fortunately Flame was able to escape last second. She had managed to escape, otherwise her secret identity would be broadcasted on all TV channels right now.

"And how are you?" asked Wilbur the little blonde girl. Instead of answering, Emely stood up.

"Ew!" Vi made and covered her eyes, "I can't see that!"

Wilbur swallowed. M then turned her back on them and pulled her shirt up to her shoulders, so that you could see her bare back. The metal door, that had hit Emely hard and had knocked her out so that she had been unconscious for a few seconds. Now a giant contusion, with a color scheme from black to purple, blue to yellow and green, showed where the door had hit her. The bruise extended from her pelvis right up high to the shoulder - a miracle that no bones were broken.

"Oh my God!" Wilbur exclaimed, "Man, M, that must hurt! Don't you want to get to a doctor? "

"So Mom and Dad find out what I'm doing in my spare time? Certainly not!" Emely replied, as she pulled her shirt back down.

"But perhaps you are seriously injured," Wilbur insisted. He had jumped up and was gesturing wildly with his hands, "You should at least get a medical examination!"

"Don't worry! It's just a bruise ... The doctor can't change that" Emely said reassuringly, and sat down on the bed again. Wilbur was still visibly shocked.

"Does it hurt a lot?" he asked as he sat on the bed again too. M's expression changed, her gaze became gloomy.

"What do you think?!" She asked irritably, as if she was annoyed that he even asked about it.

"Did you find out anything?" Vi asked a little stressed (to change the subject).

"Huh?" Wilbur ask puzzled.

"At the company" Vi helped him, and her voice now had a slight irritated tone.

"Not much," Wilbur admitted. M groaned disappointed and Vi and cursed silently. Wilbur was sorry to disappoint the girls.

"If someone has broken into the storage facilities," he continued, "then he was damn good because he didn't leave the slightest trace - no DNA, not even fibers ... Currently, the police is checking the employees."

"So nothing ..." asked Vi soberly.

"Absolutely nothing ..." agreed Wilbur exhausted and buried his face in his hands. Violet let herself fall backwards on the bed and rubbed her tired eyes.

"We racked our brains too..." she began after a while. Wilbur turned and looked questioningly at the girls.

"About that super..." added M.

"She can fly - and she appearantly has magnetic powers" Violet said.

"Magic powers?" Wilbur asked, horrified. It was a joke, but Violet punished him with an annoyed scowl. Emely chuckled however – but she had to stop that because laughing hurt. She was holding a hand on her side in pain.

"Sorry!" Wilbur reeled, but M gave him a soothing smile to reassure him.

"But why magnetism? It might as well telekinesis aswell-" he began then.

"That was our first hought, too, but we've gone through all of this again. She merely moved metal objects. Otherwise, she could have blocked off the table, the M had thrown at her" Violet explained.

"I also couldn't feel the use of telekinetic powers." M added.

"Great," Wilbur began after a pause, "So there are two thugs, of which we don't have the slightest trace, and an unknown Super with magnetic forces ..." he stated soberly.

The mood was depressed. They had no clue where they could begin to solve the matter. It was a paradoxical situation: everything they could to catch these criminals was to wait and hope that they would strike again.

"One thing is weird ..." M began after a pause. She looked intently at the others before she spoke.

"Before this floating door has knocked me out, this girl said something strange..."

"Like what?"

"When the police helicopter showed up, she said that we were the ones who were coming to jail... as ... as if she thought that we were the criminals."

"And what does that mean?" Wilbur asked in surprise.

"I thought -"

"I think that's their intention," interrupted a voice from outside, then suddenly the door opened and Flame stood in the room, "Just like the first time. They try so to make it look as if we are the ones who did the crime. This way, we are busy to defend against the police while they can escape unnoticed, and the police believes we are the perpetrators and doesn't even consider to look for the real ones." She said angrily, her hands akimbo.

"You think this was planned?" Violet asked skeptically.

"Sure! That's genius!" Flame yelled as she stormed out and slammed the door shut.

* * *

Three weeks later.

Meanwhile, nearly every bank had been robbed in greater area of Todaylands. However, there were no more evidences for activities of the unknown portal-criminals.  
Now it seemed as if the mysterious super acted on her own. But she left little traces as well. Her magnetism didn't only disturbed the alarm systems and sensors, but also made almost all cameras inoperative, so that only blurry, fuzzy schemes of a female could be seen in the newspapers and on TV.  
And our team was powerless. When they arrived at the scene, it was usually too late. They met the unknown super to times, but after a brief fight she disappeared every time.  
And if that was not enough trouble for Violet already, Liz continued to change.  
Today she came into the cafeteria in one of her new outfits. All the boys turned to look at her, no wonder, because she was wearing a wide-cut red top and a black leather mini-skirt, which was criminally short.  
Otherwise, she behaved normally - well, normal in the sense that she didn't do extremely freaky things, like biting off the head of a bat. But she did not act like she used to. She was no longer silent, and her shyness was blown away!

"When puberty means that I transform into a slut, then please shoot me!" Vi thought aghast. At that moment Liz already came towards her and greeted Vi with a wave. Now Vi saw that even her make-up was very flashy. Her lips shone in a slinky red, her eye-lashes almost looked like they were artificial and she wore her curly hair open.

"Hi Liz," Vi greeted and slid a little on the bench to make room for her.

Despite Vi's concerns about Liz' attitude change, she felt reassured nevertheless, because Liz apparently didn't have an interest in Wilbur any longer. She hadn't talked about it for weeks now. Maybe it was just a phase that was over now.

"I'm thinking about to join the cheerleaders," Liz said, as had sat down. Vi felt queasy. How much cooler should this girl get?!

"Um, yeah, sure - you've got the ... the ideal conditions for that" Violet replied with half-hearted enthusiasm.

After lunch Violet and Liz walked down a hallway to their next class, when they met Wilbur. He greeted them friendly, when suddenly something happened, that scared the crap out of Vi.

"Hey Wil, have you already planned something for tomorrow night?" asked Liz charmingly.

"Um, no ... I don't" he replied a little surprised.

And now, a little insight into Violet's thoughts at this moment:  
"OH GOD! Please make it stop! Plan, plan plan plan!"

"Well, would you like -" Liz began, when Violet abruptly interrupted her.

"Don't you have to babysit your sister tomorrow?"

An awkward silence surrounded them, Wil and Liz looked at her confused. Vi felt more then uncomfortable in this situation.

"I'm sorry, but not that you two arrange something and then you have no time..." she added sheepishly and began to play around with her fingers unconsciously. That was a lie, just a pathetic attempt! It only gave her time, it would delay the inevitable for just a few seconds.  
Suddenly Wilbur struck his hand against his forehead.

"Right! I have to take care of my sister" he said, as if he had just remembered.

"Oh ..." Liz started a little disappointed, "Then how about Saturday?"

"Sounds great! To the movies?"

"Eight o'clock in front of the Eden Palace?"

"Perfect!" Wilbur said, charmingly.

"Awesome!" Liz grinned and clapped her hands happily. When she saw Vi's peculiar expression, she turned to her.

"Do you want to join us?" she asked her best friend friendly.

"No, I ... I have plans for saturday night already" Violet lied. She couldn't go to the movies with those two again. The two should date if they wanted to - but she would not witness it from close range again.

"What plans?" Wilbur began, who wanted to know what Violet possibly had better to do, but at the same time Liz also spoke.

"Well, too bad! Then it's just the two of us!"

At that moment the bell rang, and the three had to hurry to their classes.

* * *

Violet couldn't focus on the courses no longer for the rest of the day. She just wanted to go home, press a pillow over her face and shout it all off – her anger, the sadness, the annoyance, the embarrassment – just everything.

"This cann't happen, that can't not happen! What do I do now?" She thought over and over again. She was completely stressed out.

When school was finally over, Vi brought her books to her locker before she went home. Actually it wasn't necessary, but she hadn't the strength to meet Liz or Wilbur once again today. She would drive with Flame, to she avoided the way home with Wilbur.  
However, there she was too happy too soon. When she came arounded the corner into the corridor where her locker was, there was someone waiting for her already. She froze in shock for a second when she saw Wilbur, who was leaning against her locker and who had obviously been waiting for her. It took a lot not to dissemble her surprise.

"Hey," she said, trying to hide her bad mood. He only gave her a smile. She put away her books, then they walked together to the exit. Wilbur - contrary to his nature – remained silent all the time and was just grinning. That stupid silence made Violet almost insane! Even before they reached the exit, she couldn't keep it any longer.

"Well..." she began, "So... you have a date with Liz ..." she stated the obvious. Wilbur's grin widened and he nodded, but still said nothing. Why was this idiot so frikkin happy?!

"Excited?" Violet asked, forcing helself to stay calm.

"Not particularly. I'm looking forward to it though" he replied causually. Then he gave her this calculated, relaxed glance, as if he knew exactly what was going on. It made her uncomfortable. She swallowed and looked casually at her watch.

"Hm." was all she said. This information was absolutely destructive, devastating! She now really had to get used to the idea, that the two would probably become a couple soon.

"I know you're upset about how she had changed within the last few weeks," Wilbur began suddenly, when they were outside. The sun was shining, but it was still colder than the last few days. Anyway it seemed Vi like this.

"But I like her." ilbur added finally with a grin. That drove Vi up the wall. NOW he liked Liz suddenly, though he had never before been interested in her! It was the same with all the guys at school (except Pete). And that's just because Loz was dressing all provocative and sexy now! That was insane! Apparently you simply had to show a little leg and boobs and promptly everybody was fallen for you!

"Yes, how can you possibly _not_ like her?" Vi blurted, "She has a lot of _character_!" she said sarcastically, as an allusion to Liz's provocative style of dressing.

Wilbur replied nothing, but only gave her this knowing glance again and a mischievous grin.

"What ...?" Violet asked, annoyed. Suddenly Wilbur could no longer hold it back, and burst into laughter. Now Violet was confused.

"What's so funny," she said irritably. Wilbur was holding his stomach, laughing.

"You're so cute!" he finally exclaimed, but then had to laugh again so that he could hardly speak. What should that mean? Was that a compliment or was he making fun of her?  
When Wilbur had finally calmed down, he put his arm on her shoulder and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I know what's going on here ..." he said, and had to suppress a laugh again. Violet gasped.

"You do?" she said terrified.

"Yepp," he chuckled and began to poke her in the side. He sang, "You're jealous! You're jealous!"

"Man! Stop it!" Violet cried, trying to fend off his proking-attacks.

"Violet Parr, you are sooooo jealous!" Wilbur grinned from ear to ear! Violet was speechless. How should she now talk herself out of it?  
"No excuses, tell him the truth now!" thought a part inside her, "This is the perfect moment!"

But she couldn't... she was scared. She had no boyfriend for a reason, she didn't feel ready for it, and Wilbur of all people? What if something went wrong? What should she say now? What to do? She needed to say something that sounded plausible ...

"You're right ..." she admitted with a grimace, avoiding his gaze, "But! ... It's just... I was always the cooler one of us, I was the outgoing and talkative one, and Liz was always just, well, my sidekick. And now she emancipates and becomes cheerleader, she looks better then I do, she dresses better than I do and everything! She is now much cooler than me!" she cried, looking carefully to Wilbur, wetther he believed that superficial excuse. He just grinned at her sympathetically.

"And now you're hanging out with her much rather than with me, because I'm not cool enough!" She cried all melodramaticly, wailing plaintively and fell into his arms so he couldn't see her face.

"Oh, nonsense, that won't happen," Wilbur replied and hugged her. She pushed away, pretending to be offended.

"Yes, it will happen! You two already go out without me!" she cried reproachfully.

"She asked if you want to join us -" Wilbur defended himself.

"I leave the sinking ship!" Cried Vi theatrical.

"I thought you had plans for Saturday?" Wilbur asked knowingly. Vi was taken aback. Then she put her hands akimbo. He had seen through her.

"And you have to babysit tonight ..." she countered.

"Touché, Madame, touché" Wilbur began, "Don't panic. I won't start dating Liz" he grinned. To Violet it seemed like the sky would break up, a heavenly light would shine upon them and the angels sang 'Hallelujah'!  
However, she tried not to show her boundless relief.

"Oh really," she said casually, and had to force herself not to shout and jump up.

"Come on, Pete is my best friend. What do you mean how he would feel if I tell him, 'Hey, I'm going out with your ex-girlfriend'" said Wilbur, as they walked.

"This is... very generous of you." Violet said, suppressing a grin.

"That's how I am" Wilbur replied, while put a hand on his chest and bowed gallantly.

Oh dear, Violet thought. This time she got away again, but she had to confess her feelings to him soon...

"Liz won't be thrilled," Vi said.

"Oh, she'll understand." Wilbur replied casually.

* * *

**Author's Note: One one more chapter, then this story is over! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

She had a date! She really had a date with Wilbur! A Date with Wilbur Robinson, all alone! No Violet, who could bother them! No bank robberies that ruined the evening - because she was the bank robber. This time nothing would go wrong! Liz had a strong feeling of elation, she was so happy! She felt like she had reached a promising, long-awaited peak.  
Shortly after her conversation with Wilbur, Liz had made a decision: She would stop.  
Liz knew that she couldn't go on like this forever. So far she had not been caught by the police yet, and that should stay so. Now, at the point of her triumph, after this crazy victory chain, she would stop. From now on, it was over with criminal activities. From now on, a new life began! She was glad. She was so delighted this evening that her magnetism interfered the television reception in the entire house for the rest of the day.

All the more disappointed was she, when Wilbur cancelled the date... because of Pete. Ironically. There she made one mistake in her life! Her first mistake, and now she should suffer from it for the rest of her live?!

* * *

The next day.

Liz walked through the city, her mood was miserable. She carried a few bags, because she had bought more new stuff to wear. She needed a lot of new clothes, after all, she had put all her old clothes, her "boring stuff," as she called them, to the charity shop.  
Liz was angry. She was angry about the fact that Wilbur cancelled their date. Well, she had to comply, sonce she couldn't force him to go out with her... But that was the last time. From now on, she would never again comply to anyone. The feeling of freedom and independence from the night of the first attack was still there. And the feeling of the ultimate thrill.  
After Wilbur had called her last night, she had robbed a gas station. After that she had felt much better again. What did she need guys for, who did nothing but trouble anyway? Was there a guarantee that it would be different with Wilbur than with Pete? She better adhered what really made her happy: Crime.  
She had managed to escape from this team of amateurish superheros so often already. For her it was not about the money, after all, she was rich. It was about doing something forbidden, and about not getting caught.  
Liz liked the name, which the press had given her: Magneta. And she also liked the secrecy, the allure of a secret identity. It amused her to hear people talking about Magneta, full of respect, fear, admiration... and none of them would have dreamed that the once so nice and shy Liz Beckett was behind it. Maybe she would become a legend over the years: Magneta, who had tied up the city in anxiety for weeks, who had stolen a total of several million dollars, who never left a usable track, and suddenly had disappeared without a trace... And at some point, when she would be old and gray and her criminal actions were barred, she would publish a book in which she spoke about her time as Magneta and would earn millions again! Completely legal!  
This absurd idea cheered her up, she even had to laugh a little.

She didn't even notice how she walked past the unimpressive café. A few steps later, she stopped abruptly.  
Something was about this café, but she had no idea why she felt the need to find out. She wanted to go further, but the urge to go back was stronger - almost like against her will, she went back and looked skeptically through the window of the little café.  
She had passed this store so many times, however, she had never entered it, and to be honest, she had never really noticed it until now.  
The decor was bright and futuristic, and in the rear, there was a counter where they offered cakes and sandwiches, a red-haired middle-aged woman was serving the guests.  
Was something wrong here? Everything looked pretty normal, but Liz felt a certain uneasiness.  
Suddenly she opened the door, even before she had made the decision to do so.  
She stood around a little lost at first, but the people who drank coffee during their lunch break or ate a slice of cake continued talking, without paying her any attention.  
Because Liz felt stupid to stand around like this, she went slowly to the counter and sat down there. She took her jacket and her purse on her lap and looked around in surprise. The red-haired waitress smiled at her. Liz returned the smile.

"I'll be right back" the woman said, while brought two cups of coffee on a tray to another table. This place seemed to be quite nice, but Liz wondered why she actually came in - she had no desire for coffee or cake ... and sitting here all alone was stupid. She wanted to get up and leave when she suddenly heard a voice right next to her.

"Hello."

Liz didn't show her surprise. She turned her head gracefully. Next to her a young guy had taken place. She looked into green eyes and a pretty attractive face. His hair was dark blond. In appearance she estimated his age to be 23, but his eyes looked much older.

"You seem familar to me" the stranger began innocently charming. Although he tried to sound harmless, Liz was annoyed by obvious try to hit on her.

"I dont think so..." she replied coldly.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure." He insisted, "I think I saw your picture in the newspaper."

Liz tried to dissemble her annoyance, that would quite rude after all. But then she remembered that the polite, good girl was no more.

"Bullshit!" she said rudely, with emphasis, "I've never been in the newspaper!"

"Yes! I'm sure!" said this guy and looked at her knowingly. Liz suddenly remembered that she was wrong.

"There was a tournament a few weeks ago..." she began apologetically. Suddenly she was sorry that she had been so rude to him.

"There might have been a picture of me in the newspaper..."

"No, it was only a few days ago" he protested. Then he leaned over to whisper to her furtively. Liz really didn't want to get any closer to this unknown, dubious guy, she wanted to get up and go away, but - like against her will - she leaned over to him too. The closer she got, the more absurd seemed the idea of being annoyed by him. He had an extremely engaging charisma and looked incredibly attractive.

"I'm sure," he began to whisper, "It had something to do with a bank robbery."

Liz' eyes widened and froze. In horror, her stomach she slid to her knees.

He knew about it!

Now she was fucked up...! She became pale and watched silently how he - the nameless stranger – bend over the counter and spoke to the waitress.

"Rachel, my dear, would yu bring me and my new friend a coffee, please?" he asked the red-haired woman, who coincidentally had the same name like her mother. When the waitress turned away to get the coffee, Liz leaned to him again - now almost panicked.

"Are ... are you a police officer?" she asked half-frightened, half-hopeful. If she would be arrested, then by an attractive, charming young man who ordered her coffee.  
But he just laughed dryly. He waited until Rachel had brought them the coffee, before he spoke. Rachel, the waitress, smiled at Liz friendly before she took care of the next guests.  
The stranger turned the cup in his hand.

"No... I'm not a policeman... I rather work on the other side of the law..." he said as he looked into his coffee cup, then his eyes moved up and met hers. Liz felt pierced by his glance.

"Just like you," he added charmingly. Liz didn't quite know how to deal with the situation, and what she should think about it. She felt anger because he had scared her and because he knew her secret for some reason - at the same time she felt a strange curiosity.

"No reason to be scared, Liz -"

"How do you know my name?!" Liz hissed with a fury that was born out of fear, and grabbed him by the sleeve. He winced, because he hadn't seen this coming. Then he put his hand on hers soothingly.  
Liz suddenly heard his voice inside her head clearly, without his lips moving!

_"Take it easy. I know a lot about you."_

Suddenly his gaze became sharp, like a knife, a scalpel he look right into her soul, nothing was remained hidden from him - it was a very uncomfortable feeling.

"Sorry," he said, and then she felt as if he operated a switch so that her tension, fear and distrust was away suddenly. She was pretty sure that he had nothing to do with this change of her feelings.

"Seems I forgot about my manners. Let my introduce myself. My name is Christian," he said, and offered her his hand. Liz took it slowly.

"You know my name already... So ... what do you want from me?" Liz asked skeptically.

"Oh, nothing special. I would like to invite you for a coffee and just talk to you." He said innocently.

"Just talk...?" Liz asked incredulously as she took her cup of coffee. She felt relaxed. Nevertheless, she knew deep inside her that it was wrong to get involved with this dubious Christian. Her instincts advised her to be careful and to escape!  
But that was the old Liz. And the old Liz was no more. So she decided to do just the opposite.

"About what?" Liz asked commercially. Christian smiled charmingly and leaned a little closer to her.

"I want to make an offer ..." he said with a confidential tone.

"Hm hm" Liz made, as she sipped her coffee.

"It's about a collaboration."

~*~* THE END *~*~

* * *

**Author's Note**: YES! This guy is Cobra / Alpha!

I'm so sorry – for some reason i don't get an email notification anymore when I recieve reviews. I was more then shocked when i saw that this story got like 28 reviews already! Sorry, that I didn't respond to your questions. I gonna clarify some things right here:

EmmerzK said, that Cobra got arrested: yes, but that was in an alternate future.

in the epilogue of TF, Cobra died, but before that he copied his mind into his clone Alpha, so he's alive and has a new body. We shortly see him in TF - The Halloween Adventure. And NOW he's asking Liz to help him! Omg!

About the portal-criminals... well, they were just an artistic mean to get Liz into trouble somehow – i didn't really plan, who they are, what they want and so on... But I see potential there.

As usual you can continue, if you want :-)

You found mistakes? Let me know! And if you wanna be a beta-reader, just contact me via PM (for those I still get a email notification, so I'll reply quite soon)


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